Nigerian Concord Newspaper
This is certainly not a good time for a former governor of Benue State, Senator Gabriel Suswam as his 2027 senatorial ambition seems to have crashed as a result of an alleged plans by the All Progressive Congress to zone its Benue Northeast senatorial ticket to Kwande.
Findings showed that the embattled former governor has been shuttling between Abuja and Makurdi to ensure that his contacts within the Presidency prevails on Governor Hyacinth Alia to zone the ticket to Sankera even in the face of a clear argument that the axis has produced senator for sixteen years while Kwande has never produced a senator.
It was further gathered that the pressure on some powerful figures at the Presidency failed as they pointedly told Suswam that the issue of an automatic ticket wasn’t discussed with him at the time he was negotiating his recent defection to the ruling party.
Back home, Suswam has turned himself to a praise singer, singing praises of Governor Hyacinth Alia and his administration on various national TVs just to get the governor’s support for the ticket to be zoned to Sankera for the fifth time.
On the other hand, Suswam has been granting interviews where he has described his main challenger for the APC ticket, Prince Moses Ternenge as a illiterate. He has also commissioned his media team led by one Bede Bartholomew to downplay Ternenge’s influence so that the Governor will zone the ticket to Sankera.
Recall that Suswam had few months ago left the Coalition process for the ruling party, an action which some political analysts immediately described as a plot to make the Tinubu-led administration stop the N3.1billion fraud trial against him.
Suswam who is right now waiting for a date of the court judgement was arraigned by the EFCC in 2015 for looting a whooping N3.1billion which belonged to Benue State. The fraud was done while he was governor of the State between 2007 and 2015.
For about eleven years, Suswam has made sure that it’s either he blackmailed judges or the EFCC to prolong the proceedings against him.
After losing political relevance in Benue State and beyond as a result of his alignment and direct involvement in the Coalition process, Suswam developed plans to launch himself back to the politics of the country by quickly joining All Progressive Congress, a party he had openly condemned from 2023 till 2026 to have performed woefully. During one of his live TV interviews, Suswam openly described President Bola Tinubu as a clueless and lawless leader.
Meanwhile, the plan to zone the senatorial ticket to Kwande came as a result of the agitations from stakeholders, sons and daughters of the Local Government.
In their arguments which were led by one of the lead point men for Governor Hyacinth Alia and leader of the All Progressive Congress in Kwande local government, Prince Moses Ternenge, the stakeholders of Kwande stated that it would be unfair if Sankera where Suswam hails from is allowed to get the party ticket now.
They stated that Kwande had been shortchanged in the past just because they chose not to agitate for the Benue Northeast senatorial seat..
Kwande people who spoke against Suswam’s plan to return to the Senate in 2027 made it known that the declaration which the embattled former governor did two weeks ago wasn’t just shocking but was also deeply disappointing and politically insensitive.
They said: “Zone A is not a one-man estate. It is made up of three distinct blocs: Sankera, Jechira, and Kwande. Since the return of democracy in 1999, the senatorial seat has been unfairly rotated between Sankera and Jechira, leaving Kwande consistently sidelined. This is a direct violation of the Tiv political philosophy of “Ya na angbian” — eat and give your brother.
“In 2015, when it was finally Kwande’s rightful turn to produce a senator, Suswam—backed by his kinsmen from Sankera—came to Kwande, not with entitlement, but with a request to BORROW the seat. Kwande, in good faith and brotherhood, agreed.
“He lost in 2015 to Barnabas Gemade
He was allowed again in 2019, and he won. He served four years in the Senate
He contested again and lost to Emmanuel Udende, another Sankera son. Now the question is simple: What has Suswam done for Kwande in return for this rare political generosity? Nothing.
“Instead, credible accounts suggest that during his time in the Senate, Suswam aligned with powerful figures like Sen.George Akume and Bob Ityough to deprive Kwande of a federal institution that should have been sited there.
“This is not just political betrayal—it is a slap on the face of the very people who trusted him.Now, at a time when justice, equity, and fairness clearly demand that Kwande should produce the next senator, Suswam is once again stepping forward not in humility, not in gratitude but in entitlement”