Ahead of the 2023 general elections, Benue State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is at a crossroad on who flies the party’s governorship flag of the party.

Already, the state governor, Samuel Ortom and the national chairman of the party, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu had failed to arrive on a consensus candidate for the exalted position.

Based on the Tiv political formula of “Ya na angbian”, meaning eat and give your brother, which has being in practice over the years, elective political positions are rotated among various intermediate areas.

The Guardian gathered that after the party agreed to produce consensus candidates for all positions in the 2023 elections, the onus fell on Ayu, a former governor of the state, Senator Gabriel Suswam and Ortom to draw up the final list of candidates for the governorship and national assembly in the state, especially in Benue East and Benue West.

But on March 31, 2022 when the trio met to produce the governorship candidate, which has been zoned to Jechira federal constituency and further micro zoned to Vandeikya local government area, Ayu, a former Senate President and a three time minister did not agree with Ortom.

Sources at the meeting confided in The Guardian that the national chairman is hell-bent on bouncing back as the political godfather in the state, a position he once enjoyed on return of democracy in 1999 when George Akume became governor.

He was said to have outsmarted former national chairman of the party, Chief Barnabas Gemade to become Akume’s political godfather.

While Ortom has his immediate past Commissioner of Education and chairman, state economic management team, Dennis Ityavyar as his anointed candidate, Ayu wants the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Titus Uba to succeed Ortom while Suswam is said to have given the incumbent, the free hand to choose a candidate for the party. This led to a stalemate with Ayu standing his grounds.

It was gathered that Ortom, Suswam and Ayu have scheduled another meeting on April 7, 2022, when it is hoped that a consensus governorship candidate of the party will emerge.

It is alleged the Speaker has promised to hand over the state to Ayu’s son when he would have completed two-term tenure in 2031.

There are feelers that the two governorship aspirants from Vandeikya are unpopular among the people with the Speaker said to have had little impact on the Assembly and his immediate Kyan state constituency.

Besides, he is seen as one, who lacks the exposure to attract the much needed foreign investment to the state. With the power tussle in PDP, the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, which parades an array of popular candidates, like a former commissioner for local government and chieftaincy affairs and ex House of Representatives member, Prof Terhemba Shija, and a revered Catholic priest, popular for conducting healing mass in the state, Reverend Father Hiecenth Alia, among others is hoping to cost home to win governorship and national assembly elections next year.

Party stakeholders in the state said if Ayu insisted on having his way over Ortom, PDP may not fly in the next election.
Besides, Ortom’s allies are said to be worried over the threat to his senatorial ambition, as he is relying on the national chairman’s support on Benue West to achieve his ambition.