Samuel Ortom, former Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has taken a swipe at former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, recalling that ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo once described him as a very corrupt man.
Ortom said Atiku, who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 presidential election, was angry with him and other G-5 members because they did not back him in the election.
Atiku in a statement issued by his media aide, Phrank Shuaibu, had accused Ortom and other G-5 members of lobbying for appointments in President Bola Tinubu’s administration to avoid being probed.
Ahead of the general elections, the G-5 members: Ortom, Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Ifeanyi Ugwanyi (Enugu), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) and Seyi Makinde (Oyo) had openly attacked Atiku, over an internal crisis in the party.
But according to the statement, Atiku is angry because Ortom and the other G-5 members refused to be used to “thwart the resolve of Nigerians to produce a President from the southern region”.
The statement further read, “Another reason for Atiku’s attack on Chief Ortom is the former Benue State Governor’s boldness to speak truth to his face and rebuke him for making unstatesmanlike comments regarding the killing of Benue people by Fulani herdsmen. Atiku is on record to have expressed bitterness towards Ortom for daring to enact a law to prohibit open grazing of livestock in the state.
“The former Vice President’s diatribe against Chief Ortom can therefore be understood as the manifestation of frustration for losing the 2023 election.
“His failure to humble himself and unite the PDP, opting to remain haughty even when the signals were clear that he was heading for defeat summarized his performance in the last election.
“Atiku lacks the moral ground to accuse anyone else of corruption. The words of his erstwhile principal, the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who described him as a very corrupt man have remained indelible and incontrovertible. Chief Obasanjo, in his book, ‘My Watch’ states on pages 191-192 thus:
“Atiku Abubakar’s name was among the names sent to us. Up to that time, EFCC had enjoyed close cooperation and collaboration with law enforcement agencies in the UK and the USA. I gave the green light to Nuhu for the investigation as requested by the authorities and forwarded his report to the USA.
“The report was uncomfortable and unsavoury about Atiku and his associates. I thought it was bad enough that the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was under investigation for corruption when my Administration had made fighting corruption one of its cardinal objectives. As it turned out, the investigation in Nigeria and in the US led to Atiku’s house being searched by the US Bureau of Investigation (FBI).”