2019: Crisis hits Benue SDP as Stephen Hwande replaces Hingah Biem as Guber candidate

By: Hope Abah Emmanuel

The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Benue State, Hingah Biem, has been replaced with Dr Stephen Hwande in the just released list of gubernatorial contenders in the state by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Biem, a retired permanent secretary in the state’s civil service was the party’s candidate for the election until the INEC list displayed at the commission’s headquarters in Makurdi indicated otherwise.
The SDP new gubernatorial flag bearer in the state defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) alongside few others at the wake of Governor Samuel Ortom’s return to the party in July, this year.

Hwande, an Obstetric/Gynaecologist and owner of the First Fertility Hospital in Makurdi who is a fresher in the murky world of politics joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) after he left the PDP and not much was heard of him again until the INEC list surfaced with his name at the weekend.