Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue, says he plans to invite President Muhammadu Buhari to commission some of the projects executed by his administration.

Mr Ortom said this when he interacted with reporters on Thursday in Makurdi shortly after he returned from a trip to Akwa Ibom.

He said some of the projects executed by the administration had already been commissioned, saying however, that a good number of them were waiting to be commissioned.

Dispelling accusations that he has not performed since he was elected into office in 2015 Mr Ortom said “the Benue people renewed my mandate for the second time” because of his outstanding performance.

“I won the 2019 election because of my outstanding performance. If I had not performed, my people would not have [voted for me] in 2019.

The Benue governor said he wants Mr Buhari to commission some projects so as to silence his traducers.

“I want the projects commissioned in order to silence some people who are deceiving themselves that I did not perform,” Mr Ortom said.

According to him, in politics one should always expect to get attacks from opponents even when there is nothing negative to talk about.

“They will still castigate you in order to portray you in a bad light.

“I cannot be distracted by baseless attacks. I will remain focused and committed to the cause which I believed in,” he said.

Mr Ortom said he was also working on plans to privatise all the state owned industries, because the government has no business running them.

The governor said the government has no business owning industries, emphasising that it was the function of the private sector to drive the economy and not the government.

“I will commercialise and privatise them against all odds. I started the process in 2018, but some people were against it, so I dropped the idea.

“But this time, I am not going to give in, no matter the opposition. I will not relent.

“I have reconstituted the committee that will assist in driving the process,” he said.

(NAN)