Ortom was on Monday presented with a ‘NULGE Life Patron Award’ by the NULGE national president, Ahmed Lobbo, in Makurdi.
NULGE said the governor was being honoured in recognition of his support and “inestimable contribution to the emancipation of the local government system” in the country.
However, a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Dr. Garus Gololo, in his reaction on Friday, thumbed down the NULGE for giving such an award, saying that it was an insult on “the general sensibility and collective intelligence of Benue local government workers,” whom he said were being owed cumulative arrears running to 24 months.
Gololo noted that there were governors who deserved even more than that, stressing that such a lifetime award on Ortom was to reward mediocrity and inefficiency.
“Ortom has not done anything to deserve any award. Has he commissioned any culvert since he became governor? Not even a public toilet was commissioned to his credit. The road from Daudu to his (Ortom’s) country home in Gbajimba is like travelling to Afghanistan.
“NULGE saw Governor Zulum in Borno, El-Rufai in Kaduna, Ganduje in Kano, Umahi in Ebonyi, even Wike in Rivers and Makinde that just came onboard in Oyo; it was only Ortom who has no single project to his name, except non- payment of salaries and pensions that deserved such an important award.
“I was born and bred in Benue and since all my life I have never seen such a governor that doesn’t put the welfare of his people into consideration.
I will not be surprised if by tomorrow, I see in newspapers that Association of Pensioners too are making him their life patron, in recognition of his non-payment of pensions,” he said.
