POLITICS
NASS Benue APC Caucus Faults Alia over Leadership Style
By Ubong Ukpong, Abuja
Benue state All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus in the National Assembly on Thursday drew a battle line with their state governor, Rev. Father Hyacinth Alia over his leadership style, demanding that he reverts to the normal order of the party in administering the state.
The caucus at a press conference in Abuja, asked President Bola Tinubu, to call the governor to order to save the soul of the APC in the state.
Addressing the media, chairman of the caucus, Senator Titus Zam said these were their resolutions after the one-day retreat held on Thursday to consider the Renewed Hope agenda and matters arising in Benue State.
The press conference was themed, “An update on the dictatorial conduct and poor leadership by His Excellency, Rev Fr. Hyacinth Alia, the Governor of Benue State and the need for His excellency, President Ahmed Tinubu GCFR to call Governor Alia to order.”
The caucus said, “We the undersigned are members of the National Assembly Caucus elected on the All Progressives Congress (APC) platform from Benue State.
“Having watched with apprehension the absence of democratic leadership in Benue State in the last six months exemplified by the arrogant and egocentric conduct of Governor Hyacinth Alia, we have decided to draw the attention of Mr President and other leaders of APC in Nigeria to seek their immediate intervention before the fortunes of APC in Benue State are totally destroyed.
“It is necessary to state from the onset that we have collectively and individually drawn the attention of the leader of the APC in Benue State, Sen. Dr. George Akume Secretary to the Government of the Federation who has on several occasions pleaded for patience from us in the anticipation of a possible change of attitude from His Excellency Governor Hyacinth Alia.
“Rather than change for the better, Governor Alia has become more emboldened and has continued to treat us and the party in general in the most disgusting disrespectful and disingenuous manner.
“Benue State APC, under the leadership of Sen. Dr George Akume as two terms former governor of Benue, three times senator, minister and now Secretary to the Government of the Federation had won elections and taken over power in 2015 after President Tinubu alongside other Nigerians formed the party in 2014.
“Unfortunately, former Governor Samuel Ortom betrayed the party and defected to the PDP, thus opening the chapter of a temporary setback for APC in Benue State.
“Not daunted, the Benue APC under the leadership of Senator Dr. George Akume undertook a purposeful re-engineering of the Benue political landscape to reclaim its stolen mandate and return the state to the mainstream progressive politics in Nigeria.
“It is the now stronger APC that attracted Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia to desperately seek election on the party’s platform.
“In retrospect, Fr. Alia only came to reap where he did not sow. In any case, you are well aware of the rejection his candidacy received from older members of the party.
“They felt aggrieved and resorted to stand by the advice of the leader of the party Sen. Dr. George Akume whose counsel has always been for the party to keep praying for Fr. Alia to succeed.
“In the first meeting of the stakeholders that was held in Government House, the chairman of the party Comrade Austine Agada publicly went on his knees, took all the blame even though there was no blame and apologized to the governor and party members requesting they put behind the State Assembly imbroglio and come together to save the party.
“In the meeting, the governor praised the leader of the party with promise to always work together so that Benue State and the party will enjoy democratic dividends.
“He also pledged that going forward he was going to involve the party and other critical stakeholders in sensitive decisions particularly in the nomination of commissioners and local government caretaker committees, a promise he unfortunately kept in breach.
“In appointing his commissioners, His Excellency again exercised a sole discretion without recourse to the normal tradition of requesting for nominations from the local governments and disregarded the zoning arrangements and permutations and went ahead to make his independent choices as he deemed soothing.
“Again the party did not oppose him but rather gave him support since it was his own State Executive and Security Council and needed people he could vouch for,” the caucus submitted.
The Abia Chapter of the INEC Staff Welfare Association (ISWA) has warned its members to uphold the integrity of the commission and guard against the culture of manipulating election results.
The Abia Chairman of the association, Mr Collins Eze, gave the advice at the group’s general meeting and end-of-year party in Umuahia.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen on the sideline of the ceremony, Eze said that the staff members were adequately aware of their enormous responsibility and should ensure free, fair and credible elections.
He said: “We have also told our colleagues that anywhere they find themselves they should make sure that they do the needful by ensuring transparency in the conduct of elections.
“We have always told them not to allow anybody to induce them with money to manipulate election results.
“I’m happy that they have been building the capacity of our colleagues on election processes.
“So, in the coming years, we won’t have any problem in ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections.”
He said that the end-of-year party was special as it afforded them the opportunity “to wine and dine together as well as thank God for sustaining them in 2024”.
Eze said that his leadership had introduced various means of assisting members in dire financial needs by providing platforms to solicit suppory for them.
He expressed gratitude to members for their support and cooperation, describing them as the “secret behind the success of this administration”.
He said that 34 of at least 350 staff members of the commission in the state retired from service in 2024.
According to him, the development has placed a huge financial burden on the association, in terms of their welfare and entitlement as members.
Report says that each member received a carton of tomato paste as Christmas gift from the association. (NAN)
A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be thankful to God that its 16-year administration was not probed by the successive APC-led governments.Okechukwu stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, while reacting to a statement by PDP congratulating Ghanaians for the conduct of free, fair and transparent general elections.
Report says that PDP had, in a statement, said that the verdict of the people of Ghana in the presidential election was a signal to the APC that its days were numbered. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, had said in the statement that the power of the people in Nigeria, just like in Ghana, would ‘surely prevail and end the APC’s oppressive rule’.This, he said, would “return Nigeria to the path of good governance, security, political stability and economic prosperity on the platform of the PDP in 2027.”However, in his reactions to Ologunagba’s statement, Okechukwu said that the PDP clan should thank God that former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu, out of sheer statesmanship, had refused to probe ‘the 16 locus years of PDP administrations’.Okechukwu, a former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), described the 16 years of PDP administrations as ones full of squandering and lack of plan.He said that Nigeria had yet to recover from the humongous culture of impunity and trust deficit planted by PDP on the Nigerian soil.Okechukwu said corruption was among the culture of impunity, saying it governed the privatisation of Nigeria’s electricity value chain, a key element in the country’s industrialisation drive.“Another is the blatant rigging of the 2007 general elections which the foremost beneficiary, President Umaru Yar’Adua, out of good conscience and noble magnanimity, publicly acknowledged the malfeasance which characterised his victory,” he said.Okechukwu also mentioned what he called conscienceless sale of the legislative and ministerial quarters, the annual rentage of which, he said, was bleeding the country’s treasury.“Another one is the neglect of $23 billion Greenfield Refinery, which could have saved over $70 billion expended on importation of refined petroleum products and which simulated the economic hardship of today,” he said.On why, for nine years, the APC administration could not fix those challenges, he recalled the efforts made by the Buhari administration to reopen talks on the Greenfield Refinery which, according to him, the Chinese regrettably rebuffed.The former VON director-general said that Nigerians were not in a hurry to forget the deliberate breach of the rotational convention of president from the north to the south.He said that the country could not also forget the utter disregard for Section 7 of the PDP’s constitution which expressly mandated zoning.Okechukwu advised the PDP not to insult the sensibilities of Nigerians by assuming that citizens would easily forget how they were put in the harms way.He said that PDP should thank God that Buhari and Tinubu did not want to probe them, adding “that’s why Nigerians cannot decipher the difference between the two political parties.” (NAN)
Sen. Ned Nwoko (PDP-Delta) says that Local Government Administration is central to democracy in Nigeria as it ensures grassroots governance and service delivery at the local level.This is contained in a statement signed by Dr Michael Nwoko, the Chief of Staff to the lawmaker in Abuja on Monday.Nwoko said this on the occasion of the presentation of an award “Icon of Hope” to him by the Association of Local Government Vice Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGOVC).
He was represented by his Chief of Staff. He said that the importance of local government administration in the country could not be overemphasised, as it was the bedrock of democracy.According to him, local governments in Nigeria play key roles in the country’s democracy by promoting participatory democracy, providing services, and representing citizens.“Local Governments help determine local needs and how to meet them. They also act as a link between the centre, state, and local people.“They are created to decentralise power and bring the government closer to the people. They perform both mandatory and concurrent functions.“It is in view of this that I took it upon myself to enhance the viability of local governments through the Paris and London club loan refunds,”he said.Dr Folashade Olabanji-Oba, ALGOVC National Chairman, while presenting the award at its 7th Annual National Conference, said the award was in recognition of the lawmaker’s significant contributions to strengthening local government administration.She highlighted Nwoko’s critical role in ensuring the Paris and London Club loan refunds, a financial breakthrough she said enhanced the capacity of local governments nationwide.(NAN)
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