Ortom explains reasons for lending Peter Obi his vehicle for Benue visit
Former Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has explained that he made his vehicle available to Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, during his recent visit to the state as a simple act of courtesy, insisting that refusing to assist him would have been petty and unbecoming of a former governor.
Ortom, speaking through his media aide, Terver Akase, said the gesture was extended to Obi, who travelled to Benue to meet victims and relatives of those killed in the June 2025 attack in Yelewata.
His explanation followed accusations by the Benue State Government that he facilitated Obi’s visit, with officials questioning why he would provide a vehicle for a politician while publicly supporting President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
The disagreement arose after Obi visited Makurdi last Tuesday and encountered a disruption while attempting to travel to Yelewata.
His convoy was reportedly stopped by youths around the Gyado Villa area, a few kilometres from the Makurdi Airport.
Obi had planned to visit families affected by the deadly Yelewata attack and commiserate with them, but the incident prevented him from completing the planned trip.
Following the development, Governor Hyacinth Alia’s Chief Press Secretary, Kula Tersoo, alleged that Ortom was involved in facilitating Obi’s movement in the state.
Tersoo claimed that the vehicle used to convey Obi from the Makurdi Airport had been traced to the former governor.
According to him, the vehicle was a Toyota Land Cruiser bearing registration number ABUJA: GWA 608 BT.
He further claimed that a search of Federal Road Safety Corps records showed that the vehicle was registered in Ortom’s name and associated with his Judges Quarters address in Makurdi.
The governor’s aide subsequently questioned why a politician backing Tinubu would make his vehicle available to Obi, suggesting that the action could cast doubt on Ortom’s political position ahead of the 2027 election.
Ortom, however, dismissed the interpretation, maintaining that lending his vehicle to Obi did not amount to political cooperation or a change in allegiance.
He argued that Obi, being a former governor and presidential candidate, deserved basic courtesy while visiting Benue, particularly because his purpose was humanitarian.
He said, “Peter Obi is a former governor, a presidential candidate and one of the most prominent political figures in the country. Imagine how it would have sounded if Chief Ortom had refused to assist him with transportation while he was in Benue on a humanitarian mission to visit internally displaced persons.
“Such a refusal would rightly have been viewed as petty, inhospitable and beneath the dignity of a former governor. Indeed, extending such a courtesy should ordinarily have been the responsibility of the Benue State Government itself, given the status of the visitor.”
The former governor also condemned efforts to give the gesture a political interpretation, describing such attempts as “ridiculous and shameful.”
He said, “It is therefore both ridiculous and shameful for anyone to attempt to criminalise or politicise the simple act of making a vehicle available to a fellow Nigerian leader.”
Ortom further accused the Alia administration of deliberately turning an act of kindness into a political controversy.
“That the Alia administration is now trying to make a controversy out of what was merely a humane, courteous and statesmanlike gesture exposes the poverty of its argument and the desperation behind its propaganda,” he said.
He maintained that political differences should not prevent public figures from extending basic courtesies to one another, arguing that doing so does not automatically amount to political allegiance.
According to Ortom, the attempt to present his decision as evidence of disloyalty was “intellectually dishonest and politically immature.”
He also rejected the suggestion that he was being “double-faced”, describing the allegation as laughable.
Ortom acknowledged that he supported Obi during the 2023 presidential election but said his political position had since changed, as he had publicly declared his support for Tinubu for the 2027 election.
He maintained that his current support for Tinubu does not conflict with his decision to assist Obi with transportation during the former Anambra governor’s humanitarian visit to Benue.