Nigerian Concord Newspaper
Nigerian Concord Newspaper can authoritatively report a deep crack in the political camp of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume over his reported plans to back the governorship ambition of the embattled Chief Judge of Benue State, Maurice Ikpambese under the platform of Labour Party.
Reports at the disposal of this newspaper indicated that the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council, Pius Akutah and the Executive Director Finance and Accounts of the Federal Housing Authority, Matthias Byuan who had both indicated their interests to contest the 2027 governorship election under the platform of All Progressive Congress are now agitating that their backbone, Senator George Akume has identified with Ikpambese to run under Labour Party.
It was gathered further that while Matthias Byuan is claiming and fuming to have spent a lot of money to help Senator George Akume stabilize his political family through the ongoing leadership tussle between the SGF and the Governor of the State, Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council is claiming that he had secured the nod of the SGF before he (Akume) started working secretly for the emergence of Ikpambese to be governor of the state in 2027.
Recall that the same situation took place in 2018 when Benjamin Adanyin, Titus Zam, Asema Achado and some governorship aspirants from Zone B had separately secured the support of Akume to be the candidate of All Progressive Congress but he later went behind to impose Barrister Emmanuel Jime who was not actually in the race on other aspirants.
Meanwhile, Senator George Akume has asked members of the former executive council of the Benue APC led by Austin Agada and Dan-Morgan Ihomun to start an underground mobilization for Justice Maurice Ikpambese as he is set to be unveiled soon as the sole governorship candidate of the Labour Party.
The SGF has also reportedly mandated the leader of the Benue APC National Assembly Caucus, Senator Titus Zam, Senators Emmanuel Udende, Comrade Abba Moro and some members of the House of Representatives to start raising funds for Ikpambese’s project.
A top member of Akume’s political family who is also a close ally of Matthias Byuan told this newspaper that: “The SGF is actually afraid that he may not be able to take away the ticket from Governor Hyacinth Alia during next year’s primaries so he approached the national leadership of the Labour Party to prepare a ground for the embattled Chief Judge to fly the flag of the party in 2027.
“Another belief of the our leader is that the embattled Chief Judge will not survive the storms against him at the National Judicial Council so he (Akume) wants to use the Labour Party ticket and his supports to make him governor in 2027 to compensate him over his role to use the Judiciary to fight the administration of Governor Alia”
This newspaper however gathered that supporters of both Akutah and Byuan have started teaming up to return to the camp of Governor Hyacinth Alia to fight Senator George Akume ahead of the 2027 elections if he insists on abandoning them for Justice Maurice Ikpambese.