The immediate past governor of Benue, Chief Samuel Ortom, said he will still support a southern presidential candidate in the 2027 general elections for equity and fairness.
Ortom made the disclosure on Thursday in Makurdi during his first media chat since he left office in 2023.
He said his support remains a southern presidency in 2027 because, as a patriotic Nigerian, the country needed to demonstrate her unity in diversity in the area of power rotation.
The former governor stated that he sacrificed his senatorial ambition in 2023 for a southern presidency and has regret for his actions.
“There is an unwritten constitution in this country that the north should rule for eight years and the south eight years.
“Anything that is not southern presidency I’m not in. It is wrong; we must work together as a people for our unity and diversity. The common thing we have agreed on in this country is eight years for the north and eight for the south.
“But if we have a credible candidate whom we believe has the capacity to perform more than the sitting president in our party in 2027, we will support the candidate.
“But if we don’t have, we will support any good candidate in 2027 that is from the south,” he said.
On the ongoing coalition of political parties into the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Ortom said he was not interested.
He also said he remained a bona fide member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), adding that he is the leader of the party in Benue and a BOT member at the national level.
“Politics is a game of interest. There are no permanent enemies but permanent interests. What you are seeing is a normal thing in politics; nothing new.
“But where we need to do a partnership, a strategic partnership, yes, when we know that it would be for the interest of our people, we will do it.
“I don’t believe in coalition. There is nothing like a coalition at the moment. We are not doing a coalition with anybody,” he said. (NAN)