Benue South 2027: Fear grips Ottah, Olofu’s camps as George Alli leads Abba Moro’s re-election campaign

The battle for the Benue South senatorial seat has taken a fresh turn following the appointment of former Otukpo Local Government Chairman, George Alli, as Director-General of Senator Abba Moro’s campaign organisation ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Moro, the Senate Minority Leader and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is seeking a third term in the Senate and faces a potentially tough contest against former House of Representatives member Francis Ottah Agbo of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and former Benue State Commissioner for Finance, David Olofu of the African Democratic Congress, ADC.

Ottah Agbo emerged as the APC candidate after the party’s primaries in May and was subsequently retained on the party’s revised National Assembly candidates’ list. 

Olofu, meanwhile, is the ADC candidate and has already constituted a campaign structure across the senatorial district.

The choice of Alli to coordinate Moro’s campaign is expected to add another dimension to the contest, particularly in Otukpo and other parts of Benue South where the former council chairman has built political relationships over the years.

Alli is not new to elective politics in the district.

He represented Otukpo/Akpa State Constituency in the Benue State House of Assembly, where he chaired the House Committee on Commerce and Industry.

He later served at the helm of Otukpo Local Government, first as Sole Administrator and subsequently as elected chairman.

During his years in local politics, Alli built a support base particularly among youths and grassroots political actors in Otukpo.

He currently serves as an aide to the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio.

His emergence as the operational head of Moro’s re-election campaign is therefore expected to strengthen the senator’s mobilisation efforts as the PDP battles to retain a seat it has controlled since the return of democracy in 1999.

The development comes at a time when the contest between Moro and Ottah Agbo is already generating political tension in the district.

The APC has recently intensified its campaign against Moro’s re-election, insisting that its structures across the nine local government areas are behind Ottah Agbo.

Following the appearance of APC symbols at Moro’s campaign flag-off in Otukpo, the party’s Benue South leadership publicly distanced itself from suggestions that it had endorsed the senator.

APC Zonal Chairman, Job Onum, said the party remained committed to President Bola Tinubu, Governor Hyacinth Alia and Ottah Agbo, stressing that there was no alliance between the APC and Moro’s PDP.

Ottah Agbo, a former member representing Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency, emerged as the APC senatorial candidate after a primary in which he was declared winner with 58,760 votes.

Olofu is equally building his campaign machinery.

The former finance commissioner’s campaign council recently expanded its leadership structure, appointing officials responsible for security and intelligence, election management, new media, legal affairs, training and grassroots mobilisation.

With the three major camps strengthening their structures, Alli’s appointment puts another experienced grassroots politician at the centre of the unfolding battle.

His selection has already received the backing of the Benue South Comrade Community 4 SAM27, BSCC4SAM27.

National Coordinator of the group, Adai Pius, in a statement congratulating Alli, described his appointment as recognition of his political experience and mobilisation capacity.

The group said it was confident that Alli’s experience and political network would contribute to Moro’s re-election campaign.

It also pledged to work with the new campaign director-general towards the senator’s return to the National Assembly.

For Moro, Alli’s immediate challenge will be to coordinate a campaign capable of countering the growing structures of the APC and ADC across the nine local government areas of Benue South.

The Senate Minority Leader is seeking a third consecutive term after succeeding former Senate President David Mark in 2019.