•Hyacinth Alia
As the internal wrangling in the Benue State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is escalating by the day, the state Peoples Democratic Party has asked Governor Hyacinth Alia to spare it and its party’s 2023 governorship candidate, Titus Uba, from their wars.
The PDP stated this through its Publicity Secretary, Chief Bemgba Iortyom, while reacting to a statement credited to the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Kula Tersoo, at the press conference held by the Benue caucus of the National Assembly in Abuja last week, reports Sunday Sun.
The NASS members had accused Governor Alia of being dictatorial and running the party and state like a parish house.
The PDP said that like every well-meaning Nigerian, it watched in shock the Save Our Soul (SOS) message sent by the Benue State caucus of the APC in the National Assembly to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, pleading for his intervention to save the state from the disastrous rule of Governor Alia, who shares the same political platform with them.
“In the full glare of the global press, 11 out of the 12 members of the Benue APC NASS Caucus were present and took turns at raising very grave concerns over Governor Alia’s manner of governance ranging from authoritarian and emergency-style running of the affairs of government, without regard for due process, the rule or law, or consultation and inclusivity in decision making, as well as corruption and mismanagement of public resources.
“It was indeed a crying shame to see the government of Benue State called out in such abysmally low manner, and with such sordid details attending such as the allegations that officials of the government are already buying landed property in Abuja from embezzled public resources, yet it was clear that the NASS members had been left little choice than issue the SOS to Mr. President in the manner they did.
“But true to character, the governor, through his Chief Press Secretary, rather than toe the path of reason, opted for ad hominem, hurling insults at the NASS members as well as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, whom he accused of being behind his travails and christened him in unstately language as the ‘Maitama Saint,’” the party said.
The party also noted that Alia claimed that the NASS members boasted about how they have concluded arrangements to manipulate the Supreme Court judgment in favour of the PDP candidate who has agreed to defect and join the APC.
Iortyom said: “PDP finds such a claim by the governor as not only laughable, but also a cheap attempt to discredit the solid and unassailable litigation process that the party and its candidate, Engr. Titus Uba, have staged with painstaking details to prove that APC through willful default did not field candidates in 2023 Governorship Election in Benue State; the matter which is now before the Supreme Court.
“We regret that the outcry of the Benue APC NASS Caucus only confirms the repeated warnings we have for some time now consistently raised over the incompetence and voodoo style of governance adopted by the Benue State governor.
“We raised alarm over the contract for the renovation of the Benue State House of Assembly Complex which was put at around N1 billion and done when there was no Executive Cabinet in place to consider proposals and tender for the project as provided in the procurement laws and financial regulations of the state, even as the governor’s lawful spending limit was only N50 million.
“We had warned of the inimical consequences on the social solidarity content of the state by the nepotistic motives consistently attending Governor Alia’s appointment of persons into offices of public trust in the state, in gross violation of the principle of fairness, equity and inclusivity in government.
“Our great party has always maintained the clarion call on Governor Alia to give regard to the tenets of due process and rule of law, as well as line up to the duty of accountability and transparency he owes the people of Benue in his running of government, yet to no avail.
“The contention by the Benue APC NASS Caucus members that the governor is running Benue like a church parish is putting it succinctly and their SOS to President Tinubu to save the state from impending doom at the hands of the governor only confirms what PDP saw from the onset.”
