Nigerian Concord Newspaper
The State Working Committee of the Benue State chapter of All Progressive Congress led by Comrade Austin Agada may today pass a Vote of No Confidence on the state governor, Mr. Hyacinth Alia as a result of his unending fight with the party’s leadership and stakeholders.
This action which the party now considers necessary as a way to cage the governor may be taken at the emergency meeting which Austin Agada has initiated.
The meeting which will have all the members of the state executive committees and all the twenty three local government chairmen of the party in attendance will hold at the party secretariat in Makurdi.
Topping the agenda of the meeting according to findings by our reporter is how to suspend all the loyalists of Governor Alia from the party so as to stop them from further creating parallel executive committees in their various domains.
Also on the agenda of the meeting is how to pass a Vote of No Confidence on the governor without raising dusts.
Recall that the Benue’s ruling party has been in and out of one crisis or the other since the inception of Governor Alia over who is the leader of the party between him the the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume.
There was a report that Senator George Akume ordered the governor to pay him N1b and his wife N200m monthly, an order the governor reportedly rejected.
The SGF was accused of gathering funds for his 2027 presidential ambition.
The crisis led the party’s National Assembly Caucus led by Senator Titus Zam to address a press conference where they accused the governor of not carrying the party stakeholders along in his administration.
The Titus Zam-led National Assembly Caucus fumed that the governor is running the administration like a parish where he can do whatever that pleases him. They however accused Alia of not having a single developmental project to his credit in the last seven months despite the huge billions of Naira he had got from the federal government.
They condemned him for spending billions of Naira which belongs to the public for his personal use and luxury trips.
They also condemned the governor for backing another candidate different from the consensus candidate of the party for the post of the Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly.
Recall that during the Speakership election, Chief of Staff to the governor, Mr. Paul Biam reportedly slapped the state chairman of the party, Austin Agada in a video that went viral that day.
Also, Governor Alia was accused of taking orders from the People’s Democratic Party during the selection of principal Officers of the House of Assembly while he turned down the list of nominees from the party.
Earlier, the deputy spokesperson of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Philip Agbese had removed the portrait of the governor from his office in Abuja, saying that he was not worthy to be called a leader.
Also at the 70th birthday ceremony of Senator George Akume, the deputy spokesperson of the House of Representatives spoke on behalf of the National Assembly Caucus. He told the governor in the presence of dignitaries across the Federation that he has not been performing very well as governor.
Agbese openly accused the governor of not spending the state allocations, IGR and bailout funds from the federal government judiciously.
He however warned the governor to stop fighting the stakeholders of the party.
Towards the end of last year, the member representing Gwer Federal Constituency, Dr. Austin Asema Achado wrote an open letter to the governor where he advised him to stop sleeping and praying during the time he should be attending to official issues.
Achado also advised the governor to stop the act of ignoring calls from stakeholders of the party.
Meanwhile, to show his supremacy over George Akume, the governor last week suspended the primary election of Guma Assembly which was peacefully conducted by the Electoral Committee sent from Abuja. The governor cited security issues as his reason to suspend the exercise.
Governor Alia has also been accused by the stakeholders of the party of ordering that some Ward and local government chairmen of the APC be suspended by caretaker committee chairmen appointed by him.
In a new twist yesterday, the Secretary to the state government, Professor Joseph Alakali, some advisers of the governor like Denis Akura and several other loyalists of the governor like Dorath Mato were suspended by the party in their various local governments. They were accused of anti party activities and also for forming a parallel executive committee which is against the constitution of the party.