The Director-General of the Tinubu/Alia 2027 Campaign Council in Benue State, Citizen Richard Asema, has warned that any political alliance formed within the All Progressives Congress (APC) without Governor Hyacinth Alia’s leadership is driven by a hidden agenda to sabotage the governor’s re-election.
TNT understands that some APC National Assembly members and federal appointees have formed an alliance allegedly aimed at working against the re-election of some APC candidates in Benue, including Fr. Alia.
Citizen Asema, who described the promoters of the purported Strategic Alliance for Tinubu/Shettima’s re-election as pathological haters of Benue’s development, said the arrangement was a political ploy disguised as support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT).
Addressing journalists at the campaign secretariat in Makurdi on Friday, November 13, Citizen Asema said the alliance, reportedly involving the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, Minister of Water Resources, Prof. Joseph Utsev, and opposition party chieftains, was injurious to the electoral fortunes of the APC in the state.
He insisted that Alia, having been democratically elected governor and being the leader of the APC in Benue, remained the legitimate authority to coordinate the party’s political activities in the state.
According to the DG, the governor-led campaign council, comprising over 900 party leaders, was inaugurated on November 5, with several promoters of the rival alliance included as an olive branch for reconciliation.
Citizen Asema said their subsequent refusal to participate in the council exposed what he described as their determination to undermine Alia’s administration while pretending to work for Tinubu’s re-election.
He accused the alliance promoters of being anti-development politicians who had taken an oath against the peace and progress of Benue, declaring that the state would not allow what he called a “mutiny of disgruntled party members” to determine its political future.
The campaign DG maintained that the APC needed no alliance to win the 2027 elections, citing its control of 27 of the 32 seats in the Benue State House of Assembly, two of the three senatorial seats, 10 of the 11 federal constituencies, 23 local government councils and all 276 elected council wards.
He also attributed the governor’s growing popularity to infrastructure development, industrialisation, the employment of 9,700 teachers, improved educational facilities and the regular payment of salaries and pensions.
Citizen Asema urged APC members involved in the rival arrangement to immediately withdraw and return to the mainstream party leadership under Alia, assuring President Tinubu and the governor of victory at the polls.
He added that those opposed to the governor’s administration could not be appeased, regardless of the reconciliation efforts extended to them.
