A
stakeholder of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Benue state, Barrister
Akor Ikwuoche, has sounded a note of warning to the party leadership on the
choice of deputy governorship candidate.
Ikwuoche
warned that a wrong decision could mar the chances of the party in 2019
election.
Speaking
with newsmen in Makurdi, the state capital on Monday, the former chairmanship
aspirant in Ogbadibo Local Government, expressed worries that APC might lose
the 2019 governorship election if the leaders did not quickly address the issue
of who deputises Barr. Emmanuel Jime.
He wondered
why it was taking the party such a long time to conclude on the choice, warning
that, only choice of original and “autochthonous member of the party” will
guarantee success for Benue APC.
Ikwuoche
said, “We the Benue people are up in arms against a formidable force, in the
sense that, the Governor dish the party and jumped a ship and we the remnant
members of the party should have been able to settle down and marshal out plans
to win elections and bring credible people to power.
“The
governorship candidate, Rt. Hon. Emmanuel Jime is a sellable candidate, but we
need a proper hand and someone who is an original member of APC, not the type
we had in 2015, when they brought in a PDP man because of the exigencies of
time before you knew it, he went back to his original abode.
“Now we want
somebody who is an autochthonous member of APC, who is going to advance the
course of the party, the person who has been on ground for the party, who believes
what the party stands for.
“We don’t
want a situation whereby they are going to bring an extension of those who have
ruled the state before now or appendage of PDP who just defected to APC for the
purpose of personal gains. Those people are not on ground in Benue South”, Barr
Ikwuoche said.
He added
that, over 15 calls were received early hours of Monday, from stakeholders of
APC in different local government areas of Benue South, saying, “they are all
worried and wondering why the choice of deputy governorship candidate is being
delayed. In fact, they were worried when they saw a newspaper publication that
it was a name of a woman that was submitted to INEC.
“The thing
is really killing the morals of party faithful in Benue state, because of the allayed
fears that a strange person who is not an original member of the party might be
picked. Those who called me are autochthonous members of the party, who joined
the Action Congress (AC) in 2007, then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2011
and then the APC in 2015, we know ourselves.
“We know
those who jump here and there for their own interest and we know those who have
stood for the party”.
The legal
practitioner warned that himself and other original members of APC would stay
off the electoral activities in 2019 if the leadership of the party didn’t make
a right choice.
“Some of us
will have to go on sabbatical and allow the party crash in 2019. We won’t
defect but stay off political activities till after the election”, he
disclosed.
Meanwhile, a
top source at the APC secretariat told our reporter Monday morning that, the
struggle for the deputy governorship candidacy had really polarised the party
in the past few weeks.
The source
which pleaded anonymity also carpeted some elders of the party for fuelling the
unhealthy rivalry among frontline contenders in the race.
“I can tell
you authoritatively that, these elders who are responsible for choosing the
candidate are grossly compromised. I know of a particular aspirant who bought 3
brand new Toyota Corolla cars and shared among three elders of the party, in
fact, the black colour was given to one elder in Benue South.
“I can also
tell you that, the same aspirant has promised to be paying the elders certain
amount of money every month, if they support his candidacy. Now tell me, how
will they be neutral in their duty as committee?”, the source added.
Specifically,
the source disclosed that, a close associate of former Governor of the state
who runs a resort in Garki area has been of great influence, pressuring him to
announce a particular candidate, who, according to the source, has a tie with
him.
The source
bemoaned the undue attention being given to the man, whom he said just defected
to APC 2 months ago, saying, “the party will crash if intruders are allowed to
dictate who becomes what in APC”.
A staunch
member of the party in Makurdi local government, Jacob Terhember, also confided
in our reporter that, the delay in announcing the deputy governorship candidate
was a dangerous signal of what would happen in 2019.
He said, the
party stakeholders in Makurdi would be happy if the party got it right with a
choice of sellable candidate, who will make Jime’s election smooth.
“Let me warn
our elders, Benue is not ripe for Tiv-Tiv candidate. I’m saying this because of
the rumour making rounds that someone strange to the party may be picked. I am
a Tiv man but I won’t support any ticket that doesn’t reflect the minority
groups in the state.
“I won’t
also support any strange face in APC. Those who were in PDP and benefited there
should not come and scuttle what originally belongs to old APC members who stood
and suffered for 16 years”
As at the
time of filing this report, Elder Shango, the Chairman of the Benue APC Elders
Council, the body responsible for choosing the candidate, was said to have gone
to the residence of the party leader, Senator George Akume, to plead that one
of the candidates, a cousin to him, be picked.
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