Crisis: APC summons Ortom, Akume to Abuja

The Deputy National Chairman (North), Sen. Lawal Shu’aibu has summoned to Abuja for an urgent meeting the two main actors in the tussle for leadership of the Benue chapter of the All Progressives Congress ( APC ).

A competent source, who preferred not to be named, who made this known to newsmen in Abuja on Monday said the deputy party chieftain summoned Sen George Akume and Gov Samuel Ortom to an urgent meeting in Abuja.

The source further explained that the meeting followed an announcement by the governor that he was pulling out of the party.

Our correspondent reports that the two known gladiators in the APC in Benue, Gov. Ortom and Sen. George Akume have been at daggers-drawn over the control of the party in the state.

Gov. Ortom had on Monday in Makurdi shortly after swearing in a new Special Adviser on Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr Jerome Shimbe, renounced his membership of APC.

According to the governor, he has ceased to be a member of the APC, following what he called “a red card” given to him.

He said the red card from APC would enable him to join any political party that has an ideology worthy of being adopted by his administration.

The governor stated that the strained relationship between him and the party, under which he contested the 2015 governorship election in 2015, had left him without a party.

However, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, had on Monday in Abuja, described the alleged exit of the governor from the party as a rumour.