Ortom tells Tsav to resign public office

Governor Samuel Ortom has asked the Public Complaints Commissioner in Benue State, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, to resign his appointment and join them in politics.

Ortom told newsmen yesterday in Makurdi that the call for Tsav’s resignation became expedient after a court ruled that he compromised his office.

The governor said that if Tsav failed to resign, he would do a petition formally to the National Assembly which appointed him with copies of court judgment against him, to force him out of office.

He spoke through his Special Adviser on Media and ICT, Tahav Agerzua, in response to an earlier petition written by Tsav to him (Ortom) and copied to some anti-graft agencies as well as the presidency in which he accused the governor of using his position to acquire wealth.

The Federal Public Complaints Commissioner overseeing Benue also on Tuesday alleged a plot by the governor to use the court judgment to remove him from office.

The High Court sitting in Makurdi had on Monday ordered Tsav and the Nigerian Pilot newspapers to pay N10 million jointly and severally as damages for libel to the Senior Special Assistant on Special Duties to the Governor of Benue State, Mr. Abrahams Kwaghngu.

But Tsav in reaction to the judgment, said that his lawyers were already working to appeal the ruling which he described as a ‘grave miscarriage’ of justice, alleging that Ortom and the plaintiff were aware of the judgment before it was read.