After the devastating blow former Governor Samuel Ortom’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) dealt to the All Progressives Congress (APC) Benue State Chapter in 2019, the APC went back to the drawing board to prepare for the next general election.
For the avoidance of doubt, from the office of the Governor, one seat in the Senate, three seats in the House of Representatives, and 14 seats in the State Assembly, Benue APC’s record achievement in 2015. Ortom would shatter the record when, in 2018, he defected to the PDP.
What was more painful from the result of the 2019 general election with respect to Benue State was that the man, Chief Ortom, whom Sen George Akume, the then leader and Benue North West Senator handed the broom party’s gubernatorial ticket on the platter turned against “the finger that fed him,” vowed to retire him, successfully did and went further to deplete Sen Akume’s ranks and influence ostensibly ending his political career. Sen Akume was “mad.” His agents went to town, tearing down billboards and causing traffic obstruction.
Then came Fr. Hyacinth Alia, a Catholic Priest who was touted as the “Ark (of Covenant)” that came to redeem Benue State from maladministration, non-payment of statutory obligations – salaries, pensions, gratuity- to mass killings, personal interests as against public interest, and to restore hope.
Fr. Alia’s entry into the political arena changed many things. The significant change was that Sen. Akume, before an expanded caucus of the party ahead of its primaries in 2019, rescued himself from further “anointing” gubernatorial candidates for the state. Addressing the expanded caucus of Benue APC at City Bay Makurdi, Sen Akume said he had had enough of taking accusations that he was fond of imposing candidates on the people. So he was no longer interested in doing so. That was how the party in the state agreed to hold a direct primary election to nominate its candidates for the 2019 general election. This was two days to the scheduled date for the APC Gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly Primary elections. Although it was part of the party’s constitution, because the delegate system had been more popular, many political watchers described the move as changing the goalposts in the middle of the game.
Primaries were conducted, and Fr. Alia was returned as the winner of the Benue APC Gubernatorial Primary election. Despite the legal tussle that ensued, the courts affirmed the new kid on the block – Fr. Alia- as the APC candidate for the 2023 Benue Governorship election.
Another significant development was that a new entrant into the game, Fr. Alia, was appointed coordinator of the Presidential and National Assembly Election Campaign in the state. Prior to this development, it had never happened that a gubernatorial candidate coordinated the Presidential and National Assembly election campaigns.
When the ballot was cast in 2023, the APC won nearly all the elections contested. The party in the state won the presidential ballot, two Senate seats, 10 seats in the House of Representatives, and 21 seats in the State Assembly.
From the festering feud, APC Benue State was convinced that, once victory was declared in its favour in 2023, the meal was ready. It was time to enjoy. They drafted a list of principal officers of the would-be 10th State Assembly, members of the State Executive Council, and Advisers. They appropriated positions as the party oligarchy deemed fit.
While they planned, those who believed in Fr. Alia, as the governor, also held meetings, plotting on how best they thought the new Benue under Fr. Alia should run. At the heart of this were Mr Aondona Dajoh, Gboko West (APC), Mr Saater Tiseer, Mbagwa (APC), and Mr Peter Ipusu, Katsina-Ala West (APC), with their external collaborators. They rejected the list(s) Benue APC presented.
While this was happening, PDP lawmakers, who identified Chief Ortom as their leader, vowed to oppose any list Sen Akume would present.
Meanwhile, under the Benue APC list (Akume’s), Mrs. Becky Orpin, Gboko East (APC), was pencilled as the speaker. On the day of the inauguration of the 10th Benue Assembly in June 2023, food was cooked. Makurdi was filled with anxious supporters, waiting to celebrate the 10th Benue Assembly with Mrs Orpin as Speaker. To their chagrin, it was Mr Dajoh who carried the day. Mr Dajoh was elected as speaker, with Mr Tiseer emerging as the Majority Leader.
That would mark the beginning of “skirmishes” that birthed Akume APC and Fr. Alia APC (Original APC).
Mr Dajoh led the assembly with an iron fist. He dished out suspensions as he pleased. He would command his colleague(s), lawmakers, elected on the same day but by their various constituents, to return to their seats or go out and never return. More than a quarter of his colleagues were denied constituency allowances, including car loans. Meanwhile, Dajoh and his “cabal”- Mr Tiseer, Mr Ipusu- lived in affluence, executed constituency projects, attended functions, and donated lavishly.
This became public knowledge only after Douglass Akya, Makurdi South (APC), lamented on the floor of the House, asking the Dajoh-led leadership how they feel, knowing well that they are enjoying all the privileges while some of their colleagues were jumping from one okada to another.
Mr Dajoh and his “cabal” were hailed as the princes of the 10th Benue Assembly. Fr. Alia was the Ark that no man dared touch, they reckoned. They never listened to the cries of their colleagues – 13 of them – who were suspended and denied their entitlements for months, even beyond what was reasonable, in the view of pundits.
Soon, the “standing fan” would tilt in another direction. Dajoh, with his cabal, was removed. A new leadership, led by Mr Alfred Emberga a.k.a Berger, Makurdi North (APC), emerged.
But Mr Ipusu, who was the Chief Whip while Dajoh held the garvel, the other members of “the cabal” are now labouring to demonise the “Ark.” One commentator says their “ego and personal interests have been bruised.”
If one traces the genesis of the skirmishes between Fr. Alia and Sen. George Akume, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), all the marked points would converge on the emergence of the first leadership of the 10th Benue Assembly. Dajoh and Co dragged the governor into it, and when he accepted the challenge, they reneged.
For the affected lawmakers to suddenly ditch the governor and return to the camp they vehemently opposed in the aftermath falling out of favour with the Governoe in the state implies they were after their personal interests after all. It is curious how their alleged chief collaborator, the then chief of staff Mr. Paul Biam has maintained a dignified silence after he was dropped as Chief of Staff (CoS) to the Governor, as one pundit would put it.
So when Fr. Alia referred to this crop of lawmakers as men who were handed small hoes to weed but prefer to use their own hands without the tool, to weed, he concluded by asking their constituents to ask them intelligent questions.
… to be continued
