Nigerian Concord Newspaper
Reports reaching Nigerian Concord Newspaper have indicated that the leadership crisis between the Governor of Benue state, Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume has geared up plots to unseat the national chairman of the All Progressive Congress, Alhaji Umar Ganduje.
Ganduje ‘s sin according to sources at the national secretariat of the ruling party is that he backed the dissolution of the Austin Agada-led state executive committee.
It was also gathered that Ganduje is facing a lot in the hands of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation because he constituted a Unity Caretaker Committee led by Chief Benjamin Omale who is believed to be a loyalist to Governor Hyacinth Alia.
Recall that the Umar Ganduje-led National Working Committee of the APC had two months ago dissolved Austin Agada and members of his state executive committee and immediately inaugurated the Benjamin Omale-led Unity Caretaker Committee with a claim that the action was a way to resolve the leadership crisis between Alia and Akume.
While Alia claims that he is the leader of the APC being the highest office holder in the party at the state level, Senator George Akume too says he should be given the structure of the party being the SGF and the highest office holder of the party at the federal level.
However, dissolving the Austin Agada-led state executive committee and constituting the Benjamin Omale-led Caretaker Committee has clearly given the structure of the APC in Benue state to Governor Alia.
It would be recalled that the SGF and members of the Benue state National Assembly Caucus did all to reverse the constitution of the caretaker committee led by Omale through the court but the efforts suffered a setback as the Ganduje-led NWC claimed that they didn’t receive any court injunction from Agada until after the caretaker committee was inaugurated.
Also about a month ago, a peace-making meeting between Alia and Akume was said to have been initiated by President Bola Tinubu but some APC governors and the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio who were to be at the said meeting decided not to be present when it was revealed to them that the meeting wasn’t on the order of the president and also that the governor was to be compelled at the meeting to concede the structure of ten out of the twenty three local governments to the SGF while he (Alia) controls thirteen local governments.
The APC governors were said to be very angry about the demand from the SGF, saying that it would be wrong for a parallel government to be put in place in Benue state.
However, the meeting was held with the governor not in attendance following a statement from his media handlers about his ill health. At the meeting, Umar Ganduje was said to have made it clear that the purpose of the meeting was to reconcile Alia with his estranged political godfather, and not to force the governor to concede the leadership of the Benue APC to the SGF.
According to insiders, Ganduje ‘s position angered Senator Akume who vowed to remove him as the national chairman of the ruling party at all cost.
Sources also confirmed that the present plots and calls to remove Ganduje as the national chairman of APC are not unconnected to his position to back the Unity Caretaker Committee of the party in Benue state.