January 06, (THEWILL) – Benue state governor, Revd Fr Hyacinth Alia, has announced the cancellation of the All Progressives Congress bye-election, to nominate the party’s flag bear for Guma State Constituency.
At a news conference in Makurdi on Saturday, the governor alleged that some non-indigines invaded the election venue and hijacked the process, thereby, creating tension amongst party faithful and the entire Guma local Government area.
“APC primary was marred by misconduct and was posing insecurity in the local government. Party members were feeling disenfranchised over the misconduct.
“I have to suspend the delegates’ election in Guma because politicians from other local Government areas invaded and took over. The venue was blocked and tension was rising from the youth’s actions.”
He expressed optimism that at a later date, the National Working Committee of the party will take steps towards ensuring a free and fair primary to nominate a candidate in the forthcoming bye-election for Guma State Constituency.
According to Governor Alia, Guma is the most vulnerable in the state as the IDP menace is very high, explaining that his action is to sustain peace and charge security agencies to maintain law and order in the area.
Reacting to the development, the Caretaker Committee chairman of Guma Local Government Council, Mr Moses Unongu, allegedly over 200 armed security personnel had sealed off the venue for the party primaries.
According to him, the invasion of the venue by some non-indigenes from other local Government areas including, former Ambassador Terhemen Tarzoor, Senator Titus Zam, representative Asema Achado and the State chairman of the APC, Comrade Austin Agada had compounded the problem.
Efforts to reach the State chairman of the party, Comrade Austin Agada, to hear his side of the story proved abortive as he could not return text messages sent to him.
THEWILL recalls that the APC hierarchy in the state and the National Assembly caucus of APC are having a running battle with Governor Alia over his stance on governance and reluctance to ‘share’ handouts in preference to infrastructural development in the state for the past seven months.
The Guma State Constituency seat became vacant when Dr Ortese Yanmar of the APC resigned from the assembly and was appointed Commissioner for Health and Human Services by the Alia administration.
