By Peter Duru

MAKURDI—The immediate past Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Samuel Ortom, has defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC.

Ortom, who was a governorship aspirant on the platform of the PDP, resigned his membership of the party, over alleged injustice meted out to him and his supporters during the last governorship primaries in the state.

The former minister reportedly handed his letter of resignation to the ward chairman of Nzorov in Guma Local Government Area of the state, Felix Agbaka.

Vanguard reliably gathered that Ortom who was a former member of the PDP’s National Working Committee, NWC, would seek the nomination as governorship candidate of the APC in 2015.

A statement signed by the Media Adviser, Ortom Governorship Organization, Mr. Tahav Agerzua, confirmed the resignation of Mr Ortom, saying that, “although it was common knowledge that the entire nomination process was fraught with injustice from the beginning when it was obvious that a decision was taken to deliberately disenfranchise the larger number of party members at the ward congresses.

“I forged ahead with my aspiration within the party in the hope of getting protection which i was promised but eventually could not from the state and national leadership.”