Benue guber: Akume in the eye of the storm

A s in other political parties, the gover­
norship primary of the All Progressives
Congress (APC) in Benue State is still a
subject of controversy. At present, the
party is the only major opposition in the
state that is capable of giving the ruling
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) a tough
fight in the coming general elections. For
one, it was the platform the immediate
past governor of the state, Senator
George Akume, used to secure a seat for
himself in the senate in the 2011 general
elections. So also some members of the
state legislature. Therefore, in terms of
numerical strength and popularity, APC
has all it takes to make a better showing
in the state in the coming general
elections.
However, it appears all is not too well
within the party, as internal squabble aris­
ing from the governorship primary is al­
ready tearing the members apart.
Strongly dissatisfied with an alleged
intrigues introduced into the process of
the primary, some aggrieved aspirants are
already threatening to fight what they
described as ‘habitual arbitrariness and
gross impunity’ of the state leadership.
And, of course, the man at the centre of
this controversy is no other person other
than Akume. He is said to be behind the
news making the round that the state
chapter of the party had adopted a
particular aspirant as its consensus
candidate for the coming governorship
election.
But the group in a swift reaction has
vowed not to let the arrangement stand.
Consequently, four out of the five
aggrieved contestants who claimed that
they were not carried along before the
adoption of the so-called consensus
arrangement on Wednesday stormed
Abuja to seek the intervention of the
national leadership of the party in the
matter.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja,
the spokesperson for the group, Prof
Steve Ugbah said the so-called anointed
aspirant was not a member of the party
and had no time participated in the
screening exercise for the governorship
contest.
“Until the day (Wednesday 10th Decem­
ber, 2014) that we heard a self-
sponsored radio announcement to the
effect that a PDP Chieftain was the APC
consensus governorship candidate, we
did not know that he had joined the APC
after failing woeful in the PDP primaries a
few days’ earlier,” he said.
Although no name was mentioned at the
press briefing, it was obvious that they
were referring to a former Minister of
State for Industry, Trade and Investment
and Acting Minister for Aviation,
Emmanuel Ortom, who is said to be
Akume’s preferred choice. He alone, they
said, unilaterally took the decision without
consulting concerned stakeholders.
Accordingly, the aggrieved aspirants con­
sidered the alleged imposition as an
affront, insisting that consensus
candidate could only emerge from among
themselves.
A release statement signed by four of the
aggrieved aspirants reads: “As an opposi­
tion party, we are becoming more notori­
ous for impositions. Under the
supervision of the state leadership, the
Benue APC has constricted from a
democracy into an autocracy; from a
political party into an impossibly
arrogant, one man show!
“Consensus is the outcome of a meeting
or a series of meetings. Yet, at no time did
we meet with this “Consensus Candidate”
or even met to discuss the issue, the
group said.
It further lamented several losses the
party had suffered as a result of the al­
leged impunity of the state leadership. “It
is not surprising, therefore, that many
APC heavy weights have left that party for
another parties, especially the PDP from
where they came out! These include: for­
mer senate President, Dr Iyorchia Ayu:
two time-senator, Prof Daniel Sasor;
former Speaker, Benue State House of
Assembly and member of the House of
Representatives, Hon Mzenda Ihyo, world
class Management Consultant and
political strategist, Prof David Iornem;
ACN deputy governorship candidate in the
2011 governorship election, Alh Abubakar
Usman; one of Nigeria’s foremost
diplomats, Amb Mike Gbasha; former
military governor of Katsina State,
Lawrence Onoja and Senator Joseph
Akaargerger as well as member of the
House of Representatives, Col Aboho (rtd)
.”
Concerned aspirants said they had un­
covered the moves by the state executive
to release concocted results of the gover­
norship primary that never took place in
Benue State.
“It appears the National Secretariat has
been provided with manufactured results
purporting to have come from an APC
Governorship primary that did not hold.
On both occasions when the primaries
were about to hold in Makurdi, they were
halted mid-way by the court injunctions,”
the statement added.
The aspirants, pledging their continued
loyalty to the party in spite of their griev­
ances, maintained that they would explore
every available option to ensure that due
process is followed in the emergence of a
candidate before the deadline for submis­
sion of names of candidates to the INEC.
It, therefore, urged the national leadership
not to give the party’s ticket to anyone
parading himself as consensus candidate
on the basis of fictitious primaries. They
expressed the fear that the state may loss
Benue State to the PDP if nothing was
done to amicably resolve the matter,
threatening to go to court as a last option.
In attendance at the press briefing were
Senator Joseph Waku, Prof Steve T. Ug­
bah, Hon Emmanuel Jime and Chief Mike
Lordye.
If performance is to be a factor in the
choice of who governs the state in 2015, it
will be much easier for a camel to pass
through the hole of a needle than PDP win­
ning the state. Benue State as at today is
going through one of its most difficult peri­
ods in the recent time. Apart from its
huge debt overhang, the economy of the
state is said to be in a very bad shape.
Schools are down, while teachers and
civil servants are being owned arrears of
salaries. And with the dwindling revenue
accruing to the state from the federal
allocation due to falling price of oil at the
international market, there is no doubt
that harder times may be lying ahead.
These and many more are issues one
would expect to be put at the front burner
as campaigns for the next year’s election
kick off in the state.
Therefore, there is no gainsaying that the
extent to which APC can go in its bid to
wrest power from PDP will depend largely
on how soon its can put its house in
order.
One of the aggrieved governorship aspi­
rants, Senator Joseph Waku, in an exclu­
sive interview with Sunday Sun, expressed
the fear that the party may end up not
fielding any candidate, if the matter is not
amicably resolved. “From the look of
things, if the national secretariat does not
intervene in this matter, we may end up
not having a candidate. So, the end may
be jeopardized because from what we
found out, George Akume is the biggest
saboteur of APC in Benue State. He is
sabotaging the party for reasons best
known to him. In fact, we are made to
believe that he is working against the
party.
But that is left to the national secretariat
of the party to take the necessary disciplin­
ary action so as to save the situation.”
For whatever decision to be taken, time is
off essence. But the group is optimistic
that the matter could be resolved before
the deadline for submission of the names
of candidates to the INEC.
All attempts made to get Senator Akume’s
reaction to the allegations leveled against
him proved abortive, as he did not pick
several calls put through to his mobile
phone.