2023: Benue APC under siege by power merchants

As activities heighten up towards the 2023 general elections in Nigeria, the All progressives Congress (APC) in Benue state, North Central Nigeria, has come under serious siege by some political power merchants who are making millions of naira from desperate politicians with promises to railroad them into power, and they are now hell bent on having some certain personality foisted on the party as the deputy governorship candidate in the state or else have the party destroyed. The same power merchants are also on a move to have some elected candidates of the party substituted with other unpopular persons during the window of substitution to fulfill their own part of the bargain in the ongoing ‘cash and carry’ power business deal with desperate power seekers in Benue politics.

After the highly disputed primary election of the APC that produced a Catholic Reverend Father as the governorship candidate of the party in Benue state, the party stakeholders commenced the process of recommending a running mate for the reverend gentleman as stipulated by the Nigerian constitution but the process was crudely interrupted by a two-man power cartel in a subterfuge to smuggle in someone who has shredded the Party in several ways in the state. To actualize their agenda, the two-man power Mafia orchestrated a fake correspondence on the 8th of July, 2022 in the name of Ochetoha K’Idoma Forum, a socio-political group of the Idoma people, endorsing some relatively unknown party member as the preferred choice of the Idoma people for the deputy governorship slot.

This perfidious move was swiftly countered by the leadership of the Ochetoha K’Idoma forum under the chairmanship of AVM Tony Adokwu (Rtd), disclaiming the purported endorsement in another letter dated 13th July, 2022, signed by AVM Adokwu himself.

The disclaimer is an effort by the APC elders in Idoma land to rescue the party from the vicious power vendors in the state so that the party can produce acceptable candidates that can win elections instead of allowing the two-man gang to sell party tickets to political investors who do not mean well for the Benue people and do not have electable character but are all out to make money at the expense of electoral victory and good governance.

As the drama continued to unfold, another contemptible move was unilaterally made by a former chairman of APC Elders Council in Benue South, Barr John Ochoga, to convene a meeting of stakeholders of Zone C senatorial district on 20th July, 2022 in Abuja without consulting any elders of the party. The John Ochoga stakeholders meeting of July 20, 2022 eventually turned out to be a meeting of the two-man political cartel. After the secret meeting of July 20, an online news portal ‘TheNigerian News’ published a news item on 22nd July 2022, purporting the nomination of one Dr Sam Ode by the APC elders as running mate to the governorship candidate of the party in the state. The news elicited huge reaction from APC elders in the state against the activities of the power merchants who are hell bent on selling out the deputy governorship position singlehandedly to the highest bidder against the existing power arrangement in the Party.

In a swift reaction to the news purporting the nomination of Dr Sam Ode, distinguished Sen Ameh Ebute, former Senate President of Nigeria, issued a press statement jointly with Gen Lawrence Onoja, Chief Steven Lawani, Alh Usman Abubakar, Chief Audu Ogbe, Gen Chris Garuba, Engr Morgan Okwoche, Chief Ameh Udoh, Prince Obande Omoi, Comrade Abba Yaro, Hon Nick Eworo, Chief Johnson Inalegwu Agada, Chief Edwin Anyebe, and Hon Philip Achegblu on behalf of the APC elders on 22nd July, 2022, denouncing the purported recommendation of Dr Sam Ode for the deputy governorship ticket of APC in Benue state. Hundreds of APC stakeholders in the state took to the social media to denounce the purported nomination of Dr Sam Ode and the activities of the two-man power cartel which they said have caused the party a lot of political setback in Benue. They said the three men running the power cartel have held the APC in Benue state under siege since 2015 and they are the architects of all the electoral misfortunes that APC has suffered so far in the state.

The vehement resistance from the party elders copiously shows that the manipulative power game of the Benue power vendors in APC leaves much to be desired and their agenda to bring in Dr Sam Ode as running mate to the governorship candidate through black market channel will totally undermine the chances of APC in the coming election.
The Party elders maintained that the same Dr Sam Ode was imposed on the party in 2019 as deputy governorship candidate by the same set of power merchants and the imposition led to the woeful electoral failure that APC suffered in Benue state that year. Several allegations of mismanagement of election fund and anti – party activities were leveled against the deputy governorship candidate in that election but the leadership has not taken any serious step to do a proper postmortem of that election in order to avoid the mistakes of the past and avoid those power merchants whose business in politics is to make money at the expense of the party interest.

The Party faithful, elders and social media commentators watching the unfolding dubious power game that is tearing APC apart in Benue are all calling on the APC leadership in the state under Sen George Akume to demonstrate leadership by halting the mercantile activities of the two-man gang and allow the party elders of Benue South to meet and recommend a popular Candidate that will deputize the governorship Candidate of the party in state. This, they said, will boost the already dying morale of the party stakeholder and members as they prepare for the 2023 election.
For sanity to return to APC in Benue state, the party leadership must take bold steps to sanction this clique of power vendors in the state and ensure that party candidates always emerge through popular choice. It is only by this that the party members will be motivated to go all out and win election. Anything short of this will repeat the 2019 experience of woeful failure suffered by APC in the state.