Benue: Drama as APC members reject Fr Alia as governorship candidate

The Benue State chapter of the APC Solidarity Group has revealed that the State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Rev. Father Hyacinth Alia, “is not a member of the state chapter of the party.”

Rev. Fr. Alia’s emergence at the APC governorship primary held in the state is still a subject of controversy.

The state coordinator of the group, Hon. Guana Joseph, in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, said documents emanating from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) revealed that the Vandiekya local government area chapter of APC where the APC candidate hails from, has no record of membership with INEC.

The group accused Senator George Akume of being “blinded by desperation to the extent of imposing a non-party member on the APC as her governorship candidate.

“We have with us the certified true copies of INEC’s response to an application by a law firm, Broad Spectrum & Partners, requesting for certified true copies of the acknowledgement of receipt of hard and soft copies of the registers of members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Social
Democratic Party (SDP) from Benue State as submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“In its reply to the application signed by Barr. Ernest Olenyi, INEC revealed that out of the 23 local government areas of Benue State, the APC submitted the list of members in 21 local government areas.

“The two local government areas without its list of members are Vandiekya and Katsina-Ala local governments.

“The implication is that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has no validly nominated governorship candidate by the party as the local government area where Rev. Father Hyacinth Alia is from was not submitted in compliance with Section 77(2) & (3) of the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended).”

Recall that the Benue State APC had zoned the governorship seat to Jechira area of the state, which comprises Konshisha and Vandiekya LGAs.

According to the statement, with Vandiekya register not submitted to INEC and the deadline already elapsed, it shows that the party may not have candidates from both Katsina-Ala and Vandiekya LGAs of the State.

The APC group said, “Alia falls short of the three months membership waver, hence stand disqualified on the ground that there is no member of the party from Vandiekya Local government at all. The leadership of the party at the state level is aware of this development but the leader is mute about it.

“This, therefore, brings to mind, the question of the leadership has truly ceded the Governorship seat to the PDP. The party has Konshisha local government to chose from. We have two competent aspirants from Konshisha, we must look at that direction if the APC must participate in the 2023 Governorship elections in Benue.”

The group also called on the national leadership of APC led by Senator Abdullahi Adamu to intervene before it is too late.

“The National Chairman of our party H.E Senator Abdullahi Adamu should quickly resolve this issue before it is too late. We are sure that the state chapter is not ready to do the needful base on some certain interest, it is unfortunate that APC in Benue is sinking before our very eyes,” it stated.