Benue Visit: “It Would Have Been Petty” — Ortom Explains Why He Lent His Vehicle to Peter Obi

By Victor Idajili

Former Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, says he had no political motive for lending his vehicle to Peter Obi during the former Anambra governor’s recent visit to Benue. 

According to Ortom, refusing to help Obi would have been “petty” and beneath the dignity of a former governor.

In a statement released through his media aide, Terver Akase, Ortom said the gesture was simply courtesy. Obi was in Benue as part of his plan to meet victims and families affected by the June 2025 massacre in Yelewata.

The clarification came after the Benue State Government accused Ortom of facilitating Obi’s visit. The government also questioned why Ortom, who has declared support for President Bola Tinubu ahead of 2027, would provide transport for an opposition presidential candidate.

The issue started last Tuesday in Makurdi. Obi’s convoy was reportedly blocked by youths around Gyado Villa, a few kilometres from the airport, while he was on his way to Yelewata for a condolence visit. The disruption meant he could not proceed to meet the families.

Following that, Governor Hyacinth Alia’s Chief Press Secretary, Kula Tersoo, alleged that Ortom helped arrange Obi’s visit. Tersoo said investigations traced the Toyota Land Cruiser used to convey Obi from Makurdi Airport to Ortom. He gave the registration number as ABUJA: GWA 608 BT and said FRSC records linked it to Ortom’s Judges Quarters address in Makurdi.

Tersoo then asked how a Tinubu supporter could make his vehicle available to Obi, suggesting it raised questions about Ortom’s loyalty.

Ortom dismissed the claims. He said Obi, as a former governor and presidential candidate, deserved basic courtesy during a humanitarian visit.

“Imagine how it would have sounded if Chief Ortom had refused to assist him with transportation while he was in Benue on a humanitarian mission to visit internally displaced persons,” Ortom said.  
“Such a refusal would rightly have been viewed as petty, inhospitable and beneath the dignity of a former governor.”

He added that providing such courtesy should ordinarily have been the responsibility of the Benue State Government given Obi’s status.

Ortom described attempts to politicize the act as “ridiculous and shameful.”  
“It is both ridiculous and shameful for anyone to attempt to criminalise or politicise the simple act of making a vehicle available to a fellow Nigerian leader,” he said.

He accused the Alia administration of turning a “humane, courteous and statesmanlike gesture” into controversy, saying it exposed “the poverty of its argument and the desperation behind its propaganda.”

The former governor insisted that extending courtesies across party lines does not equal disloyalty, and called the suggestion that he was being “double-faced” laughable.

Ortom acknowledged that he supported Obi in the 2023 presidential election, but said he has since publicly declared support for Tinubu for 2027. He maintained that assisting Obi during the Benue visit does not contradict his current political stance.