By Aare Abiodun Oluwarotimi
It was an interesting Benue throughout last week because of the litigations, crazy drama, and media attacks over matters that the actors could have resolved easily. Pride and blindness won’t let them fix things so let’s expose them a little.
I have been on the telephone since morning with some members of the APC NWC as well as my contacts within the Presidency to really find out what went wrong last week. A lot went wrong. For instance, the sacked state chairman of the APC in Benue, Austin Agada accused the Ganduje-led NWC of erring by shelving a court order and went ahead to inaugurate the Unity Caretaker Committee led by Mr. Benjamin Omale.
I also spoke with some members of the sacked APC executive committee in the state and they too said a lot about their sack, Agada’s judgement and the positions of party leaders to the matter affecting the party.
From the side of the court, it has been confirmed that Mr. Austin Agada didn’t get the original court order before the UCC was inaugurated by Umar Ganduje so one cannot say he is guilty of contempt of court as being claimed by the sacked chairman.
From the Presidency, it was gathered and confirmed that President Bola Tinubu is tired about the continuous crisis in Benue between Father Hyacinth Alia and his estranged political godfather, Senator George Akume. Those who briefed Tinubu also made references to earlier issues between SGF Akume and Senator Gabriel Suswam in 2009 and then Chief Samuel Ortom PhD in 2017. As a matter of fact, the president is in support of the latest actions of the Ganduje-led NWC. Who thinks Ganduje as sufficiently close as he is to Tinubu would take such action without the express permission of Mr. President? Or who thinks that Tinubu won’t support any action taken by Ganduje for as long as he is convinced that it will stabilize the party, considering his plan to run for a second term in 2027?
Checks at the National secretariat of the All Progressive Congress indicated that it was a scanned copy of the judgement that Agada sent to the Whatsapp number of the national secretariat instead of the original copy. Can one call that a genuine and legitimate way of serving a court order on someone?
As far as the Nigerian judicial system is concerned, it has to be proved to a judge beyond a reasonable doubt by the plaintiff that he and the court bailiff had made several failed attempts to serve a certain court order on the defendant and that it’s the defendant that has made it impossible for the order to be served on him before an order to serve him through the social.media or other means can be made by the same judge. This wasn’t the case with Agada. The rulling was not pronounced until 4pm last Friday and that was many hours after the UCC had been inaugurated. Agada however sent a scanned copy of the order through Whatsapp. Who approved such for him? This alone has killed his case.
Apart from the above, words coming out from some members of the sacked State Working Committee point at four directions:
1. Some of them see no reason this crisis should continue since the constitution of the party has stated that the governor should lead the party as the leader in Benue being the number one citizen of the party. Senator George Akume can be a national leader, though this isn’t in the constitution .They expect both leaders to come together, form an executive committee that will have their respective candidates and build the party together.
2. Some believe that the court cases by both Agada and the governor’s camp should have been totally withdrawn the moment the NWC made the order some months ago.
3. Some of them believe that Agada didn’t handle the current legal pursuit very well and think the case is as good as being lost to the governor’s side.
4. Some think they should quickly agree with the decision of the highest decision-making body of the party, the NWC, and reckon with the UCC so they won’t lose totally.
To reasonable analysts, that TV interview where Agada said that he served the order on the NWC at 4:02pm on Friday was needless. It has killed the case since the order was granted in Makurdi at 4pm so how was it possible for him to have served it on the NWC within two minutes if we consider that only a miracle from God can make a car that leaves Makurdi at 4pm get to Abuja at 7pm not to talk of 4:02pm? It means claim from the NWC that they didn’t receive the order is right and genuine.
The TV interview granted by Agada will hinder his planned return into office as the state Chairman of the party in Benue state because the inauguration which the 4PM order that was served through Whatsapp at 4:02pm had taken place many hours before the order was passed.
We are still investigating
I am Aare Abiodun Oluwarotimi, De Oracular Oracle that eats jollof rice in the shrine.