The Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom on Tuesday said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may not make progress in next year’s election if the party ignores the demands put forward by the five Governors elected on the platform of the party.
Ortom disclosed this during the inauguration of the PDP State Campaign Council and Campaign Management Committee at the party’s State Secretariat, Makurdi.
He said; “It is not possible for us as a party to move forward without resolving the issues that I and my other colleagues are raising. These are the issues creating some challenges in the PDP. We must therefore come together as a team and work to resolve them.''
“I want to assure you and all Nigerians that if our PDP Presidential candidate is able to come out in sincerity and open up and resolve those issues, we shall work together. I am in PDP and I am working for the PDP and all our candidates from bottom to top.''
“I have said before and I will say again, but where a particular candidate said that Benue votes did not matter, Ortom did not matter, the Governor of Benue State did not matter, the leader of the party in Benue State did not matter, that is where we will have issues.''
“But we do not have issues with the candidates of the party. And so I call on the national leadership of the party to rise to its responsibility and listen to the voice of reason and deploy its conflict resolution mechanism and resolve all the issues so that we can work as a team as we move into 2023.” 
“Those people who say that five Governors do not matter, I disagree with them. It is impossible for PDP to win an election in this kind of massive conflict that we have in our party and most of these Governors that we are talking about, they are PDP States who won election including Benue State for the PDP. So there is no way you can dismiss the issues that are being raised by the five Governors.”
“For all that I and my colleagues stand for, let there be a committee of the whole house to look at these issues and discuss frankly and resolve them amicably, if not there will be a challenge. But for us in Benue State here, we have no issue, we have all said it, the candidates have said it. We are PDP, Benue State is PDP, but if the issues that the five Governors are raising are not resolved, I cannot guarantee what will happen at the national level. But I want my party to win and this is all that I have to say.”
Speaking further on the lingering crises, Governor Ortom maintained that “Benue State remains PDP and PDP remains Benue State. No amount of intimidation, no amount of evil treatment or anything that can turn us away from PDP. We remain committed to PDP.”
He said that despite the internal crisis in the PDP, some of them love the party and want Nigeria to be liberated where there will be equity, fairness and justice, stressing that “it is PDP that can provide all these.”
Ortom accused the National leadership of the party for not acting swiftly to solve the issues that cropped up after the national convention.
He said; “The national leadership of the party should rise up to their responsibility and address these issues and deploy its internal conflict resolution mechanism to solve those problems.