- Speculations Of Deputy Governor’s Resignation Persist
By Iduh Onah in Abuja & Amos Aar, in Makurdi
THE FEUD between Senator George Akume, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and his godson, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, Benue State Governor, over who wields ultimate political power in Benue State enters another level with growing speculations of a thickening plot to impeach the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Hon. Aondona Hyacinth Dajoh, when the House resumes sitting after the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Speculations are also rife that the deputy governor of Benue State, Sam Ode, may reign as a result of the protracted conflict which became public during the inauguration of the 10th Benue State House of Assembly on June 5, 2023 when the Governor Alia and the SGF backed different candidates for the speakership of the state House of Assembly.
Since then, the crisis continues to escalate such that when Senator Akume visited Benue for his first homecoming since appointment as SGF on Saturday, December 23, 2023, Governor Alia failed to show up at the Makurdi Airport to personally receive him.
Governor Alia also did not delegate his deputy or any member of his cabinet to carry out the function that is a normal state protocol irrespective of party affiliation, although he attended the colloquium/symposium organised in honour of the SGF as part of activities marking his 70th birthday anniversary and homecoming held on Boxing Day at the Benue State University.
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Before then, Governor Alia, had, while addressing stakeholders of the party sometime late last year, made a forceful statement perceived by many as an inuendo directed at Akume.
“I want all of us to listen, and listen in very well! Benue State is the only state you and I have. So, this is the only state we call home. NOBODY, I repeat, NO SINGLE INDIVIDUAL, has a MONOPOLY over Benue State. All of us are stakeholders of the state. Therefore, NO ONE MUST, and should not intimidate, THREATEN ANYONE of you standing here,” Alia was recorded saying in a short video clip. (His emphasis)
Governor Alia however made amends for the slight when at the colloquium/symposium organised in the SGF’s honour, he showed up and was full of eulogies, describing Akume as the “cradle of the 4th Republic.”
Sources with informed knowledge of the deepening power tussle between the SGF and his godson, corroborating one another, told National Record that at the moment, the strategy of the SGF’s camp is to gradually defang the governor by stealth recruitment of the lawmakers and goad them to impeach Speaker Dajoh, seen as a major fort behind Alia, and install a speaker who will be pliable.
A reliable source at the Benue State House of Assembly, who pleaded anonymity, told National Record that a handpicked group of lawmakers and APC chieftains in the state have been empanelled to negotiate the amount for the facilitation of the impeachment of the speaker.
According to the source, the impeachment panel initially budgeted the sum of N4 million for each of at least 17 lawmakers, an amount which was said to have been reviewed upward to about N10 million after many of the legislators contacted outrightly rejected the N4 million offer.
“I can confidently tell you that contact had been established during the holidays with some lawmakers who were asked to mobilise their colleagues for the speaker’s impeachment. We were told that the person behind the move is ready to give each of the lawmakers or at least 17 the sum of N4 million. This offer did not go down well with many lawmakers contacted, but from my understanding, I think some legislators are said to be demanding about N10 million.
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“Discussions have not been finalised but I think we are coming close. The major challenge now is that the pro-impeachment lawmakers are not yet up to 10 in number,” the source disclosed.
The source said the mobilisation strategy is to emotionally play up the issue of lack of welfare for the legislators and hype the fact that the speaker has since his election not worked in the interest of the legislators, allowing Governor Alia to do as he wanted.
Two different sources in Abuja, where the plot was said to had been hatched, confirmed the impeachment move.
According to one of the sources, who also pleaded not to be named, moving against the speaker became a strategic option because removing him, it is assumed, will weaken the governor who ultimately will also be exposed to impeachment when a pro-Akume lawmaker is elected to replace Hon. Dajoh.
This theory, the source further stressed, is predicated on the prevailing narrative that Governor Alia and the Speaker Dajoh have collaborated to effectively marginalise those lawmakers noted to have voted against Dajoh’s speakership on June 5, 2023.
For instance, the source said, only 13 lawmakers, in addition to the principal officers, have since inauguration over six months ago, been given official vehicles, denying others, mainly pro-Akume and non-APC legislators, without official vehicles on account of their vote against Dajoh or not being members of the ruling APC.
According to the second Abuja source, who also spoke under anonymity, majority of the lawmakers are sufficiently angry with the speaker as well as the governor on the ground of lack of the usual pecks of office accruable to legislator.
“Let me say that ordinarily, and without being instigated, honourable members were not happy with the speaker for allowing the governor to look down on the lawmakers by denying them what had over the years been their legitimate rights.
“For instance, up to now, only 13 members and the principal officers of the 10th Assembly have official cars. The official reason for this anomaly is that vehicles have been ordered and yet to be supplied, but the unofficial reason is really because members yet to be given cars are believed to be those who voted against the governor’s candidate as speaker or who are not members of the APC.
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“Another unofficial reason for the anger against Dajoh is due to the seeming disdain the governor has for other political actors or stakeholders in the current dispensation, including the speaker,” the source said, adding that the governor often times doesn’t pick the speaker’s calls nor call him back.
“Most times, the governor’s phones were switched off and when you call his aides, they will tell you that the governor is not available or busy, even when there are emergency situations,” the source added, also revealing that the usual pecks which members get during Christmas were reduced to meagre 5 bags of rice and 20 litres of vegetable oil per lawmaker.
The source concluded that Governor Alia is administering the state as if he is administering a Catholic Parish, “where he is the Lord of the Manor” and therefore cannot be questioned by parishioners.
When contacted for his reaction to the allegations against his principal, the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the Speaker, Mr Akume Raphael, said his boss, Mr Aondona Dajoh, was not aware of any such plot to impeach him. “No, he isn’t “, Akume responded via a WhatsApp chat.
On his part, Mr Tersoo Kula, CPS to Governor Hyacinth Alia, did not respond to enquiry messages sent to him.
Hon Dajo, who represents Gboko West state constituency, was elected on Monday, June 5, 2023 in a keenly contested and dramatic election between him and Hon. Becky Orpin, who represents Gboko East state constituency.
Dajoh’s election as speaker exposed the crack in the emergency but solid political block moderated by Senator Akume, essentially on the religious values of his godson, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth, upon which the APC rode on to overwhelming state-wide victory at the governorship polls.
In the contest to be speaker, Dajoh had the backing of Governor Alia and a crop of his APC loyalists, who sources say, wanted the governor to assert his independence early as opposed to being a puppet of his godfather.
RELATED STORY: Alia, Akume in First Clash as Benue Assembly Elects Speaker Amidst Drama
Dajoh’s rival for the speakership, Hon Orpin, had the support of the pro-George Akume camp of the APC and strongly backed by the State Working Committee of the party.
At the first ballot, the two candidates were tied at 16 votes each, indicating that there would be another round of voting. However, there were altercations and some drama when Hon. Cephas Dyako, the only member of the Labour Party representing Konshisha state constituency, argued that the next round of election should be held without the governor, the then Senator-elect for Benue North-West, Mr Titus Zam, and the APC leadership being present.
According to Hon. Dyako, the presence of the governor, senator-elect and party leadership had and would put pressure on the members to vote for their preferred candidates.
Upon commencement of the second round of voting, a shouting match erupted between members over an alleged plot by some members that there were attempts to influence voting for a particular candidate. This held up voting for several minutes as the pro-Akume and pro-Alia supporters backing their respective nominees for the position of speaker loudly called for the cancellation of the second round of voting over alleged influence on the voting process.
At the third round of voting, Dajoh emerged victorious with 17 votes as against Orpin’s 15.
On the surface, the relationship between the SGF and the Speaker seems normal. Last Saturday, January 6, 2024, the speaker graced a mega decamping ceremony of members of the People’s Democratic Party into the APC led by a national ex-official of the PDP, Hon. Prince Yandev Amaabai at NKST Genyi, Yandev, Gboko LGA, and he was caught on camera in a keen tête-à-tête with the SGF.
Neither Governor Alia nor his deputy, Sam Ode or his top appointees graced the event.
A close ally to the speaker confided in our correspondent that the Speaker has gotten wind of the impeachment moves against him and was acting fast to ingratiate himself with Senator George Akume in order to prevent it.
Dep. Gov. Ode in the crossfires and rumours of impending resignation
While Speaker Dajoh’s involvement and eventual fate in the ensuing political battle between Akume and Alia is inevitably tied to the support he got from the governor in his quest to be the number 3 in the power hierarchy in Benue, the speculation of Deputy Governor Sam Ode’s involvement in the evolving crisis, is rather more complex.
As deputy governor, Ode is expected to be 100 per cent loyal to his boss. National Record gathered that though there has not been any obvious doubt in this expectation from Ode since the pair were sworn in, however, sources confided in National Record that all seems not to be well in the relationship between Ode and his boss in the context of his (Ode’s) strong relationship with Senator Akume.
Multiple APC insiders in the state told these reporters that Ode emerged as a candidate handpicked solely by Senator Akume over other aspirants for the position from Benue South, or Zone C, as the Idoma political bloc is known in Benue.
They pointed out that Akume and Ode have had a robust political engagement in which the former had played a critical role as Ode’s guardian or godfather, ensuring that Ode rose steadily from local level politics in Otukpo LGA through the state as a powerful Special Adviser on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs under the Suswam administration before his elevation as Minister of State under the Jonathan presidency.
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As a godson, Ode had remained consistently coolheaded and loyal to Senator Akume, just as he also established his own network through reciprocity, habitual and instinctive generosity such that he was said to be an inevitable pick by Akume to be the running mate to an equally handpicked Rev. Fr. Alia to the outrage of virtually all chieftains of the APC in the state, especially in Zone C.
The linkage of Akume and Ode, National Record gathered, transcends politics to kindred affinity in view of the fact that Tarka LGA, where Akume hails from, is said to be Ode’s maternal ancestral home.
National Record gathered that this background put Ode in the crosshairs of the political acrimony that erupted between Akume and Alia post inauguration in June, and has been kept alive and deteriorating inextricably on a daily basis.
A reliable source in Government House, Makurdi, told National Record that since the test of strength between Akume and Alia during the election of the speaker, the relationship between Ode and Alia has grown cold such that he has been kept at arm’s length by the governor.
According to the source, this awkward coldness in the relationship between the two is behind ongoing speculation that Ode had resolved to resign as deputy governor as he was said to have been promised a federal appointment to be facilitated by the SGF.
News of the speculation sipped into the media in an article by Abuja-based online publication, Intervention, which noted that the deputy governor has botched his resignation plan.
Intervention’s reference to a botched plan followed Ode’s parley with newsmen at his office in Makurdi when he told journalists what was interpreted as a response to dispel speculations of his alleged plan to resign.
“It is time for our administration to provide the much needed service that will lead the people out of abject poverty-line, to give them a new lease of life. So, I am using this opportunity to call for support of the Benue people irrespective of political affiliations, tribal or religious inclinations.
“I feel honoured to serve Benue State under the leadership of Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia, who found me worthy to run on the same ticket with him. This is because quite a lot of people were interested in the office but the governor, a Catholic priest and man of great spiritual insight that has served in the state in different communities, was able to do his own diligence to discovered [sic], I was the best pair with him to contest the election that brought the team to office. I promise never to disappoint the governor and Benue people.
“Furthermore, I will forever remain grateful to the Secretary to Government of the Federation, SGF, Senator George Akume, state leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, other stakeholders and leaders of the party at all levels for their various contributions that saw the APC victorious,” Ode was quoted to have said.
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These words to the journalists by Ode’s words also inadvertently gave credence to the speculation of his isolation by Alia, and perhaps an impending federal appointment. While he did not stress the conflict between Akume and Alia in this conversation with the journalists as reported, his rhetoric however betrayed the tension, his helplessness and uncertain fate in the complex web of political intrigues that are neither his making nor within his powers to resolve as he would wish.
One such helpless situation, which may be unsettling him is certainly the action of his friend and political associate, Hon. Philip Agbese in responding to the Akume versus Alia brawl.
Hon. Agbese had in the wake of the crisis between Akume and Alia becoming public knowledge released a video, which went viral on social media, in which he took down the official photo of Governor Alia from his office with remarks that is seen by many as disparaging of the office and person of the governor.
“…Today, I officially remove the portrait of this person from my office because he is not fit to be a leader. I had followed him, if you don’t have respect for democracy, if you respect the constitution, you’re not my father, your picture has no excuse to be in my office, so secretary, please take this…” Agbese had said in a viral video of the portrait takedown in his office at the National Assembly.
When contacted, Ior Ikyereve, Ode’s Chief Press Secretary, disparaged any misunderstanding between the governor and his deputy, stressing that the alleged rift is baseless and a figment in the imagination of the speculators.
“The speculation is baseless and unfounded. It’s nothing but a figment of the imagination of the so called speculators. The Deputy Governor, Barr. Sam Ode, mni, has a cordial working relationship with his principal the Executive Governor, His Excellency, Rev Fr Dr Hyacinth Iormem Alia, and together they are working hard to improve the lot of the Benue citizens,” Mr Ikyereve stated.
He added that Ode did not address a press conference but only spoke when “some newspaper correspondents paid him a courtesy visit in his office in the spirit of the Yuletide, and His Excellency simply granted them audience.”
Though largely a political neophyte, National Record gathered keen observers in the state capital that the governor, from all indications since his inauguration, has shown that he has firm understanding and grip of power and the nuances of the political dynamics in the state.
One of the sources told National Record that the governor and his supporters have a Plan B if the current crisis degenerates. When asked what the plan might be, the source simply said the APC is not the only party in the state, and that after all, Senator Akume’s federal power is derivable from the electoral fortunes expected from the state.
