In this piece, JOHN CHARLES examines the intrigues surrounding the internal crisis rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress in Benue State
Last week, the Benue State Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, inaugurated a new state working committee of the All Progressives Congress headed by an acting chairman, Benjamin Omakolo.
The Benue State APC has been in crisis following the sacking of state Chairman, Austin Agada, by his Ehaje council ward and a subsequent court order restraining him from parading himself as the party chair.
This led to the appointment of Omakolo as acting chairman by the state executive committee headed by Governor Alia.
But this could not last longer following the order of the state’s Chief Judge, Justice Maurice Ikpampese, who vacated the earlier court order and ordered that the party revert to status quo ante until the case which was assigned to a new judge is disposed of.
Rather than allowing the court to dispense of the case, the state government pressed on to push for the recognition of the Omakolo’s-led faction.
First, a factional secretariat was opened at the instance of the state government along Kashim Ibrahim Way, close to the Government House in Makurdi, a few kilometres away from the original party secretariat also in the capital city.
Omakolo featured in all the state functions, both within and outside the state, except those organised by the APC national secretariat.
As the crisis festered, the APC National Chairman, Alhaji Abdullahi Gadunje, and the Vice President, Senator Kashim Shetima had on several occasions appealed to the warring factions to sheathe their swords and embrace peace.
Penultimate week, the national secretariat of the party, took another step and asked all party members to withdraw all cases in court as a prelude to resolving the internal crisis that had engulfed the party in the state.
The Agada-led working committee, through the state APC Legal Adviser, Alyebo Mathew, in compliance with the directive of the national secretariat filed a notice of withdrawal on March 25, 2024, on a case filed by the chairman and was consequently struck out by Justice T.A. Kume last Wednesday.
It was learnt that the Omakolo case at the Appeal Court challenging the decision of the Chief Judge of the state is still pending in court.
The state’s assistant Publicity Secretary in the Omakolo-led team, Adah Inas confirmed that the case had not yet withdrawn and may not be withdrawn until the national secretariat does the needful.
The needful, Inas said, “There is a petition before the national secretariat about Agada’s anti-party activities which led to his suspension, and till date, the national secretariat is yet to attend to the petition.
“So, the case at the Appeal Court is there, the national secretariat knows what to do, let them attend to the petition first, then we will know the step to follow.’’
He added that with the suspension of Agada, there was a need to fill the vacuum created because nature abhors vacuums, hence, the emergence of Omakolo as the acting chairman.
Recall that the state governor, Rev Fr Alia represented by his Chief of Staff, Paul Biam, inaugurated a new state working committee led by Omakolo.
Biam, while inaugurating the Omakolo-led team, had said, “There can’t be two governors in the state. We have only one leader of the party who is the governor. Let nobody make any mistake. Let us agree that while we were doing it at the back door, it has come to fruition. It’s a deliberate act to change the state executive committee of the party, there is no faction.”
It’s rather unfortunate to state that the one solid APC in the state is gradually sliding into pieces due to what some analysts ascribed to a leadership tussle between the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, and Governor Alia.
While the party structure chaired by Agada is solidly behind the SGF, the cabinet members in collaboration with other politicians have thrown their weight behind the governor.
The APC Benue South Senatorial District Chairman, Rev Pinot Ogbaji, during a press conference recently in Makurdi, shed more light on the reasons for the crisis.
Ogbaji traced the genesis of the internal crisis in the party to the election of the speaker of the state assembly. He accused the governor of jettisoning the ideas and pieces of advice of the party leaders whom he said worked tirelessly for his victory.
He said, “Governor Alia seems to have more confidence in patronising people outside APC, the majority of whom had opposed him tenaciously during the electioneering periods and voting days than his party men and women who ideally should have a cordial working relationship with him.
“We wish to state that the crisis rocking our party is not an Alia versus Akume fight, neither is it an Alia versus Agada fight.
“This is purely a fight for the survival and recognition of the party that has provided a convenient platform for his emergence as the Governor of Benue State.’’
Ogbaji also said, “You would recall that the shaky relationship between the governor, Rev. Fr. Alia and-his party, (APC) started in June 2023, during the inauguration of the state Assembly where the governor had preference for a candidate for the position of Speaker.
“But he could not confer with the leadership of the party, rather he allowed the party to painstakingly sit, zone the position and anointed a candidate that was not his choice.
“The end result was an embarrassing situation where stalwarts of the party were enmeshed in a shameful altercation that lowered them and the party in the chamber of the Benue State House of Assembly.
“The party again nominated and spread other principal officers of the Assembly, namely; Majority Leader, Deputy Majority Leader, Chief Whip, and Deputy Chief.
“But shockingly, the Speaker happily accepted all nominations from the Peoples Democratic Party as duly endorsed by the PDP state chairman and secretary but jettisoned the list submitted by the APC.
“It was a humiliating experience for the party, having to face that level of neglect in the hands of an administration we all laboured hard to plant.
Ogbaji lamented that efforts by the state party leadership to mend fences with the governor did not yield results.
He said, “During the first stakeholders meeting that we held with the governor at the Government House, our state chairman, Agada practically went on his knees, took all the blame apologised to the governor and all party faithful, asking them to put behind them disagreement and come together to protect the soul of the party.
“The governor also pledged that he would from that point, involve the party deeply in making sensitive decisions. In picking his commissioners, the governor exercised his sole discretion without the usual tradition of directing local governments to make nominations taking cognisance of zoning and necessary political permutations.
‘‘The party said to allow peace to reign, it overlooked all the apparent steps taken by the governor, but the bubble burst after the constitution of the local government caretaker committees.
‘‘Before the constitution of the council caretaker committees, the governor had conveyed stakeholders meeting where he appealed to stakeholders to forgive and forget the past incidences and asked them to nominate five people from each local government to form the caretaker committees and the governor pleaded to be given two slots from each local government to fill.
‘‘Hell was let loose a few days after and the list of local government caretaker committees was released. This prompted the forum of local government party chairmen, for the first time, to openly come out and dissociate themselves from the governor’s list on the ground that the governor did not work with the list submitted to him.
‘‘While the crisis festered, the State Publicity Secretary under Agada led working committee, Daniel Ihomun revealed that, unlike the constitution of the PDP which automatically placed party leadership on the state governor.
“In APC, there is nothing like that, it’s conventional, it’s the person whom the members trust that becomes the leader of the party, nothing else confers leadership of the party on the governor of the state.
“For instance, during the past administration of ex-President Mohammed Buhari, the national leader of the party was President Bola Tinubu and presently, he is the national leader of the party, the Vice President, Senator Shettima, is the leader of the party in Borno State.”
Going by this submission, Ihomun stated that Senator George Akume, one-time governor of the state and now Secretary to the Government of the Federation has been the pioneer leader of the party right from when it (the party) was the opposition at its formation as Action Congress to the present APC in not only Benue State but across North Central is no doubt the leader of the party in the state.