Ortom argued that Alia is a combative and bitter candidate maintaining that it is the reason he comes across as a frustrated and bitter fellow who sounds similar to a loose cannon.
The governor of Benue state, Samuel Ortom has called out Hyacinth Alia, the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state for directing verbal attacks at him.
Alia during a political function in Gboko had called Ortom a fugitive and an insane person who is running a corrupt government.
Responding to the allegations, Ortom in a statement issued on Monday by his Special Adviser, Media, and Publicity, Terver Akase, said Alia has deviated from issue-based campaign to attacking the current government.
Ortom while advising Alia to focus on his numerous court cases opined that after he left his priestly duties to run for politics, the only message he has for the Benue people is the denigration of the person and office of Governor of the state.
The statement reads, “Governor Ortom is Alia’s lone ‘manifesto’. He levels verbal attacks on the Governor at every event where he is given the opportunity to speak.
“Even when he manages to muster something that sounds like a policy statement/campaign promise, he has always been at a loss pertaining to the ‘how’ of achieving whatever he claims that he would do if elected.
“In a video posted on social media after yesterday’s event in Gboko, Alia could be heard describing Governor Ortom as a fugitive and insane person. For a man who is seeking to govern Benue State, Alia’s description of a sitting Governor as insane goes to reveal how low, intemperate, uncultured and unfit he is.”
Ortom argued that Alia is a combative and bitter candidate maintaining that it is the reason he comes across as a frustrated and bitter fellow who sounds similar to a loose cannon.
The Governor insisted that the APC candidate has gone berserk and is exhibiting symptoms of emotional insecurity and therefore feels the need to hurl insults at people to feel better.
Speaking further, the PDP chieftain stated that Alia has lost focus on what he truly wants and his recent utterances have revealed that he is blaming others for luring him away from God to get involved in partisan politics.
Ortom who alleged that Alia was blaming him for leaving his priesthood to join partisan politics wondered why the gubernatorial candidate would feel this way as he was not part of the APC when Alia joined.
“Alia is not being fair to Governor Ortom. The Governor did not ask him to accept the result of a yahoo yahoo primary election that is being challenged in court by a number of governorship aspirants on the APC platform. He therefore ought to redirect his frustration to the persons who conducted the sham election that produced him.
“The Governor is also not responsible for Alia’s poor understanding of the workings of government and what he is expected to be telling the people at campaign grounds. He should blame his handlers for not crafting for him an acceptable campaign message beyond accusing Benue people of killing themselves to please his sponsors who are patrons of Fulani herders.
“We advise the renegade Benue APC guber candidate to face his multifold of scandals which border on gross insubordination to his superiors, reported diversion of church funds and repeated violation of the oath of celibacy leading to numerous petitions against him by aggrieved parishioners in nearly all the places where he served as a priest before his contumacy and attendant suspension,” the statement concluded.