Ortom warns Akume, Jime against using his name to campaign

• Benue chief judge tasked on quick justice delivery
Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, has warned the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Emmanuel Jime, and the leader of the party in the state, Senator George Akume, to stop using his name to campaign for votes.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag-bearer in the state sounded the warning following the recent campaign rally by the APC governorship candidate and Senator Akume (representing Benue north-west) at the Daudu Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Guma Council.

“We watched in disbelief the political campaign staged at one of the Daudu camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) by the APC, which was addressed by Senator George Akume and the party’s governorship candidate, Emmanuel Jime. I wondered why, of all places, the duo would chose IDP camps for a political rally,” he said.

The governor, in a statement signed by his adviser on media and ICT, Tahav Agerzua, maintained that the duo lied to the displaced persons that they were visiting the camps to give them relief materials.

His words: “It is on record that the APC governorship candidate, since the killings in the state, has never made a single statement in condemnation of the series of attacks and killings of Benue people by armed herdsmen. He did not send even one relief material to the thousands in various camps.”

Contrary to Jime’s view on governance, the governor said: “I believe that my people must be alive to vote. What the IDPs need to hear now is not a campaign slogan, but the sound of school bells for their children; the sight of what to eat and what to wear.”

Meanwhile, the acting governor, Benson Abounu, has charged Justice Aondover Ka’kaan to ensure quick dispensation of justice, as justice delayed amounts to justice denied.

He gave the charge yesterday while swearing in Justice Ka’kaan as the new chief judge of the state.

Abounu, while enjoining the chief judge to ensure that the right thing was done in all circumstances to prove the judiciary as the last hope of the common man, urged him to work hard to surpass the achievements of his predecessors.

“The choice of Ka’kaan became necessary because he was the most senior judge in the state and his impeccable track record stood him out,” he added.