ORTOM & SUSWAM: SETTING THE RECORDS STRAIGHT

By Emmanuel Zahan

I saw a post made by Bede Bartholomew, the media aide to Senator Gabriel Suswam in which he once again cast aspersions on the immediate past Governor of Benue State, Chief Samuel Ortom. Bede, in his vain attempt, painted his boss as a saint and Chief Ortom as “devil”. He was referring to the incident at the burial of the wife of Chief Mike Mku where His Excellency Ortom rightly stated that Suswam was the one who introduced social media insults on political leaders in the state in 2015 and urged Suswam to reverse the trend.

I state categorically that Chief Ortom was right in what he told Suswam. Just yesterday, Chir Armstrong, a member of the group of innocent young men who Suswam recruited to launch and sustain social media attacks on Ortom, made a statement publicly revealing how Suswam assembled them in Chris Dura’s house after he left office and incited them against his successor Governor Ortom. Chir wrote:

“We sat in his parlour (Chris Dura) and at about 9:00 p.m, Suswam arrived. Immediately he entered the premises, all the security lights in the compound were switched off.
Without wasting time, the former Governor began to address us. He told us that his successor, Chief Samuel Ortom, was a man who could be easily provoked. He went further to say that the best way to make Governor Ortom lose focus was to fabricate all manner of terrible stories against him, his appointees, and his administration.”

The above scenario confirms what many Benue know as the origin of social media attacks in Benue State. Suswam is the initiator and the chief sponsor or online thuggery.

Another senseless thing that Bede wrote was that Suswam has never benefited anything from Chief Ortom, insisting that Ortom has been the only one benefiting from Suswam. Let me take Bede and Suswam down memory lane.

I believe many people will remember the infamous statement by the then Governor Gabriel Suswam and his cronies in 2014 before the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary election “I don’t know who will win the 2015 election, but the person I know that will not win is Ortom.” That was the level of hatred Suswam and his followers had against Ortom who had resigned from his position as Federal Minister to contest the Benue governorship.

Flashback to the 2006 PDP governorship process in Benue State. Some of those writing today on social media were too young to understand the circumstances that produced Suswam as PDP governorship candidate, but the older generation who were active participants and watchers of the events at that time will recall vividly that it took the relentless efforts of Chief Ortom and a few others to make Suswam the PDP gubernatorial flag-bearer. For two days during the primary election, Ortom did not sit or even have time to go and freshen up, just to ensure that Suswam emerged victorious. Ultimately, his efforts paid off and Suswam was declared the winner.

Suswam successfully did two terms with the likes of Ortom again standing solidly behind him despite the ‘Ugbah Nyor Ishor Chenji’ Tsunami of 2011 which was like an overwhelming sea tide against the 2nd term bid of Governor Suswam. But as the Maradona and self-acclaimed black cat that he is, Suswam began to betray his genuine supporters, especially Ortom who by this time had indicated interest to run for the office of governor in 2015. That was when Suswam began to make the unfortunate comment of “I don’t know who will win the 2015 election, but the person I know that will not win is Ortom.” And true to his words and deeds, he manipulated the primary election in favour of Terhemen Tarzoor against more popular aspirants such as Ortom and Steven Lawani.

Chief Ortom refused to be discouraged by the ill treatment he received from Suswam and left to join the All Progressives Congress (APC) on whose platform he defeated Suswam’s candidate Tarzoor in a landslide victory during the 2015 election. Suswam himself woefully lost his Senatorial election.

Bede and other apologists of Suswam often claim that he was the one who brought Ortom back to PDP in 2018 and gave him the platform to seek his 2nd term in 2019. That is another fat lie! Contrary to the claim, the fact is that Suswam stoutly fought against Ortom’s move back to PDP in 2018. The moment he sensed that Governor Ortom was meeting with PDP National Chairman Uche Sekondus, former Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike, the then Senate President Bukola Saraki and other heavyweights in PDP who wanted Ortom to return to the party that he built many years ago, Suswam became angry and restless. He moved quickly to block the move but failed.

What Suswam’s followers are failing to admit is that it was Governor Ortom’s return to PDP that helped Suswam to win the 2019 Senatorial election. The popularity of Ortom and his goodwill spread across the 23 local government areas and was so huge that PDP won all the three Senatorial seats, 90% of the House of Representatives seats and 95% of the Benue State Assembly seats. It was Ortom’s massive success that also helped Atiku Abubakar to win Benue State in the 2019 presidential election.

That was Ortom doing Suswam another unmerited favour despite Suswam betraying him on two previous occasions.

More shocking was the fact that despite giving Suswam the Senate ticket and providing him with support during the 2019 campaigns, Suswam was still campaigning against Governor Ortom ahead of the election. He didn’t want Ortom to win a 2nd term. Suswam collected huge sums of money from the Buhari government to work for the election of Emmanuel Jime. He told a good number of his close associates that Ortom would not win the 2019 election. But his wish failed yet again! His people rejected his betrayal and support for Jime and stood with Ortom who won in a landslide victory, despite the federal might of the Buhari government.

As the leader of the party in the state, if Governor Ortom had anything against Suswam before the 2023 elections, he would have denied him the Zone A Senator the ticket, like Suswam denied him the governorship ticket back in 2014, but heavens would not have fallen! Don’t forget that the Zone A ticket was to be for Kwande not Sankera. Govenror Ortom did not only give Suswam the ticket; he also gave him massive support, financially too, enable him to go round and campaign. Governor Ortom himself personally campaigned for Suswam in all the 7 local governments of Benue North East Senatorial District.

Sadly, while this was going on, Suswam was secretly plotting against Ortom’s Senate bid in Zone B. He was also secretly meeting with Fr Hyacinth Alia, the APC governorship candidate. Suswam collected huge amounts from Fulani to stop Ortom from going to the Senate. His calculation was that if Ortom had gone to the Senate, he would have overshadowed him, so it was better that the then governor did not make it to the red chamber. But in doing that, he shot himself in the foot. He lost his own election in Zone A woefully to Senator Emmanuel Udende.

We needed to put these facts and records straight so that some mischief makers will stop misleading the public. Suswam has never done Chief Ortom any political favour. If any of his followers wants to debunk this statement, they should do so with evidence.