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Promised to end recurring farmer-herder clashes in Benue's agrarian communities.

Signed the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law in May 2017, later hailed as a reference point for other states; enforcement reduced some attacks but was also blamed for over 100 security-operative deaths and required a temporary suspension in April 2023 amid renewed violence.

Promised to resolve the salary and pension arrears inherited from the Suswam administration.

Ortom said he reduced the pension backlog by ₦38 billion and handed over about 5 months of salary arrears to his successor in 2023, but the overall debt and arrears picture worsened rather than improved over the two terms, according to handover figures his own administration provided.

Campaigned on prudent fiscal management of Benue's resources.

Handover notes put Ortom-era liabilities at ₦187.56 billion in loans, bonds, contractual obligations and arrears (his successor separately claimed ₦359 billion); Ortom's camp disputed the larger figure as inflated, but did not dispute that the state's debt burden grew substantially, more than tripling the level inherited from Suswam by some estimates.

Promised accountable use of state resources including security-vote spending amid the farmer-herder crisis.

The EFCC investigated an alleged ₦21.3 billion in unaccounted withdrawals from government accounts (2015-2018), and a later state government-commissioned panel found ₦139.8 billion in unaccounted funds across the full 2015-2023 tenure.