2019: Why Akume should be grateful to Benue people (Opinion)

By: Tahav Agerzua

Voters in the Benue North West Senatorial Zone last Saturday ended the 20- year uneventful stay of Dr George Akume on the political firmament.

Senator Akume’s immediate reaction was to instigate his small band of supporters in his hometown of Wannune to block the road and harass passersby as well as PDP members in the town.

He has followed up by moving round the streets of Makurdi today and even attempting to force his way into Government House to cause trouble after the APC lost most of the elections in the State.

We condemn these acts of lawlessness and have directed the security agencies to curb such threats to peace.

What one expected from him for the patronage from the public till is gratitude to the people of the state in general and the zone in particular for elevating him to various leadership positions including Governor and Senator.

However, in his usual pride and megalomania that led to his fall, Akume has chosen to deprecate the democratic process of which he has been a major beneficiary for 20 long years.

His unfortunate comments in this regard have been published in The Nation newspaper of Wednesday, 27th February, 2019.

A close look at election results from his senatorial district indicates clearly that the people had decided to retire him from politics and his strangulating influence.

In most of the polling units in the district, President Muhammadu Buhari, All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate got many votes.

The same voters avoided Senator Akume’s party like a plague on the same day time and place and rather voted massively for his challenger from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Rt Hon. Orker Jev, thus indicating clearly that Jev was their preffered choice.

This pattern reflected in six out of the seven local government areas in his district.

Senator Akume was only able to intimidate voters in his native Tarka local government area to vote for him or face unpleasant consequences thus winning only in this one local government area.

Senator Akume’s allegations that Governor Ortom used armed Livestock Guards who he kitted in military and police uniforms during the elections is blatant falsehood.

How come that with his much touted federal might, not even one member of the Guards has been arrested as proof that they were used during the elections?

Governor Ortom does not patronize thugs and any militia. He won elections in 2015 without any resort to these and does not need and has never used them to prosecute his election in 2019. This explains why he executed an amnesty program to rid the state of illegal arms and criminals in the early part of his administration.

The outlandish claim that the Livestock Guards were responsible for the murder of APC Chairman in Ohimini can also not be substantiated. There are conjectures that the affected Chairman was a victim of intra party squabbles.

Defeated Senator Akume, in mentioning the names of places where the Livestock Guards purportedly operated did not include Ohimini. His latter claim in this regard is therefore a contradiction.

Yet, Senator Akume’s strategy has been to falsely accuse the Governor so that he could procure the military and other security agents to assist him to subvert the will of the people.

It could be recalled that last year, Akume mobilized these agencies to support eight members of the state assembly to commence an impeachment process against Governor Ortom but failed just as his plans did not fall through during the last elections.

The state government has received reliable intelligence reports that Senator Akume and his dwindling followers have concluded plans to recruit militia to assist them to prosecute the remaining elections.
This will not be tolerated as the conventional security apparatus will be deployed to contain the challenge.

Similarly, the Governor remains unperturbed by reports of Senator Akume’s plans to once again instigate the transfer of the state Police Commissioner and also cause the removal of the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the State.

The Governor’s concern is that all institutions and their operators should operate within the ambit of the law and due process.

All those who do this have no problem with him.

For Senator Akume, the people have given him red card for conniving with their tormentors to change the genuine narrative of their plight.
But he should be eternally grateful to them for patroning him for 20 long years.

The civilized thing to do is for the defeated Senator to utilize the legal process if he feels aggrieved and not resort to lamentations in the media.