Ortom pledges to conduct credible council polls

BENUE State Governor-elect, Dr. Samuel Ortom has promised that his administration would conduct credible local government elections when he finally takes over the mantle of leadership in the state.

He made the promise while addressing a delegation of the Nongov community resident in Makurdi, which paid him a congratulatory visit at his Judges Quarters residence.

Dr Ortom hails from Nzorov, which is part of the Nongov community in Guma Local Government Area of the state.

He decried a situation where the party that controlled the state always ensured that it won 100 per cent at local government elections and pledged that his administration would allow the people to choose grassroots leaders of their choice through credible, free and fair polls.

The former Minister of State, Industry, Trade and Investment, stated that it was incumbent on the All Progressives Congress, APC, leaders particularly governors who emerged through credible polls to replicate what the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had achieved nationwide at the state level.

He assured that although the challenges confronting the state were frightening they could be surmounted through collective efforts and creative thinking as well as deployment of international best practices.

Earlier, President of the Nongov Community Development Association, Makurdi branch, Chief Samuel Aga, had disclosed that members had come to felicitate with one of their own on his emergence as governor of the state.

Chief Aga expressed gratitude to God and the people of the state for the development and also lauded Ortom for his doggedness in pursuing the realization of his aspiration even as he enjoined the Governor-elect not to let the people of the state down.

The governor-elect thereafter paid thank you visit to Chief Ivokor Unongo, Ter Guma, Senators George Akume, Barnabas Gemade and Wantaregh Paul Unongo.

In another function, Dr. Ortom, pledged that his administration would provide a conducive environment for the private sector to thrive and appealed to those with creative and viable business ideas to bring them forward for funding, which would be sourced from within and outside the country.

Ortom, who made the promise during a church service at NKST Yina, Makurdi, maintained that he would do everything possible to conserve scare resources of the state in consonance with the principles of the Buhari administration at the Federal level.

He also vowed to punish fraudulent government officials as one of the measures to eradicate corruption in the state.

He also pledged to implement the manifesto of the All Progressives Congress, which provided for free and compulsory primary and secondary school education in the state.