Benue: APC chair Agada storms NASS, hails Philip Agbese

Benue State Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Austin Agada, has extolled the quality representation provided by the Deputy Spokesperson of the House of Representatives, Hon. Philip Agbese, since inception of the 10th National Assembly.

Agada, who was on a scheduled one day working visit with his State Working Committee to the National Assembly, said he decided to start his office tour with Hon. Agbese, because he represents his immediate Constituency of Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency, saying, the tour would continue with other Members of the National Assembly in the coming days.
He said the working visit was to rub minds with the Reps Members and Senators from Benue State, as to how far their campaign promises and that of the party to the constituents have been fairing, and how best they have represented the state at the National Assembly.

Speaking to newsmen shortly after visiting Hon. Agbese, the APC Chairman said, “of course, obviously, he has been doing his best. You all know that he has been representing the zone well. He has been doing his primary function, which of course, is to make laws, to oversight the executive, and to also represent the interest of his people at the federal level.

“So, he has been doing practically well and has sponsored alot of Bills for the good of the people of his Constituency and Nigeria at large. But I feel that engaging him at the level of party will also bring a reminder to how we started and where we are going. So that is primarily the essence of my visit”.

Speaking on the achievement of APC under his leadership and the contributions of Members of National Assembly, Agada said, “when we came on board, this very executive under my leadership, recall, we had no Member of the National Assembly because the one we had, the only one we had, which was RT. Hon. John Dyei, left for PDP. So we had no Member of the National Assembly. We had just two of the three House of Assembly Members. And we started working.

“But today, by God’s special grace, we have two Senators out of the three Senate seats from Benue State; we have ten House of Reps Members out of the eleven Federal Constituencies in our state. We won the governorship, we won the presidential election. We have 21 House of Assembly Members, including the recent rerun State Assembly that was done in Guma 1 constituency, state constituency. So we have been doing very well as a party.

“We were able, under my leadership, without contribution from the state, to have a new, modernized state secretariat. You can go and see it for yourself. It is the best in Nigeria. Everybody acknowledges that it is the best. Go around and ask members of the National Working Committee of our party and other government functionaries that have come to the state. When they see the secretariat, they all marveled as to how we were able to achieve that.

“And it might interest you to know that it was done from my own hard work and the support of the leader of this party, who is the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (Senator George Akume) and of course, Members of the National Assembly, that whenever I cry to them, they are there to assist.

“So I’ve been doing my best and I’m sure you too, on your part, have been following programs of the party at the state level. And that is why recently, we were able to win the Guma 1 election. Many people thought we were not going to win considering the crisis in the state, but we were able to manage and we won the election. So we are doing well. The people are happy with us and we don’t want to fail the people”.

Comrade Agada also spoke on the chances of the party in 2027, despite the crisis bedeviling the APC in Benue, saying, APC would win all the seats in National Assembly from Benue.

“The year 2027 will not be different from what you have seen. The only difference is that, in 2027, if we are not mistaken, we might be having all the three Senators inside the Senate and all the eleven House of Reps in the 11th Assembly. That is the only thing that we might be looking out for in 2020, because we are solid, we are working hard.

“That also informs the essence of this working visit so that we and the Members of the National Assembly can be on one page and also a reminder of our campaign promises to the people. So the people have absolute confidence in the ability of the party to deliver to them the much needed dividends of democracy.

“You look at the records now, since we APC came on board under the leadership of Senator Dr. George Akume, who is the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, today, we have always been moving from strength to strength”, he added.

Earlier while addressing the party executive in his office, Hon. Agbese, reiterated his loyalty to the party that brought him to power and admitted Senator Akume remains the leader of the party in Benue State, while acknowledging Agada as the best party chairman in Nigeria.

He said, “Mr. Chairman, you are one of the best state chairmen of political parties as far as this country is concerned. State chairmen of APC in other states are envying your feat. PDP chairmen in other states are envious of you. Mr. Chairman, we in the National Assembly caucus have no reason but to love you. You have given birth to all of us as our mother. If you are not a bad child, will you go after your own mother?

“The woman who gave birth to all of us in the National Assembly, in Government House and even in the State House of Assembly, is this man, Comrade Austin Agada. It does not matter whether in the course of the pregnancy, there was a time your mother refused to eat the right meal for you to be okay or not. What is important is that she endured the pains of labour and you were born and you were nurtured.

“Mr. Chairman, on behalf of all of us, what I will say to you today, remember the story of Jesus Christ in the scripture, when he healed ten, only one came back to give thanks to him. But in the National Assembly today, ten of us were voted into the House of Representatives. I want to say that your case is even better than that of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Yes, because, out of the two Senators that you gave birth to, the two are still standing tall to say thank you for giving birth to us, and in House of Representatives, we are still intact for APC.

“Your visit today is to strengthen all of us and to continue to remind us of the campaign promises we made back to our people. And to always work in line with the party manifesto. Mr. Chairman, I am deeply honored by this visit.

“I want to rededicate my loyalty, my unflinching loyalty to the party. For many of them, they have other alternatives. But for us, we have no other alternatives. We will live and die in this party, and we will never serve two masters. We will always serve the one and only true God, our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. And our loyalty will always be to the leader of the party, his Excellency, Dr. George Akume.

“The Bible says, no man shall have two masters. That is the scripture. It was there before we all came. It doesn’t matter who is a Bishop, it doesn’t matter who is a Reverend or whatever. But Jesus Christ has already said it that you cannot serve two masters. So, even those who have been led astray by the special grace of God, they know within their hearts that they have only one master.

“That a man is sinning does not mean that he has renounced Jesus. Even when you go to the beer parlour to do the things that you are not supposed to do as a Christian, something tells you within your mind that you have betrayed Jesus. So those that are betraying the leader today, I know that their consciences are disturbing them”.

Agbese said the working visit was timely, as it would afford the Lawmakers to always remember their electioneering campaigns with the people, urging those who don’t want to respect the supremacy of the party to find alternative abode in other political parties.

“And by God’s grace, when you finish with the Reps Members at the course of time, you also extend this visit to the Senate so that all of us will continue to live by the party’s manifesto and the promises that you people made, even on our behalf to people that we did not campaign to. But based on their belief in this party, they voted for us.

“I am not a product of any popularity. I’m not a product of any financial muscle. I’m a product of APC. For those who have become super positive, in the next election, they can try YPP and see how far their popularity will take them”, he added.

Those on the tour with the Chairman include, Benue South Zonal Chairman, Bishop Pinot Ogbaji; State Financial Secretary, Hon. David Hangeior Akaan; the Publicity Secretary, Hon. Daniel Morgan Ihomun; Auditor, Hon. Simon Aluor; Director, Media and ICT, Amb. Martinez Ibn Tyotsumeh; former Reps Member, Hon. Bernard Ochepa; Amb. Mathew Adoli; former State Chairman, Comrade Abba Yaro; amongst many state and zonal officials.