Zone C youths blow hot as Benue APC fields Tiv-Tiv ticket

Zone C Youth Coalition For Democracy, a sociopolitical youth group from Benue South Senatorial District, has described as a hilarious joke, the report that the All Progressives Congress, APC in Benue State has settled for a Tiv-Tiv 2023 governorship ticket.

IDOMA VOICE reports that the inability of the party stakeholders in Zone C to come out with a consensus deputy governorship candidate before the expiration of the deadline, made the party to submit the name of Barr. Shima Vembeh as a placeholder to deputize its candidate, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia.
Reacting to the development, the coalition said the APC will suffer a heavy rejection in Benue South in 2023 for looking down on them.

The statement jointly signed by Comrade Geoffrey Agaba, National President, Zone C Youth Coalition for Democracy and Comrade Oliver Omenka, National Secretary, said the youths of Zone C will embark on a door-to-door sensitization of our people to vehemently reject APC in our land.

The statement below.

We find it as a hilarious joke, the news that the All Progressives Congress, APC in Benue State has settled for a Tiv-Tiv 2023 governorship ticket and we wish to make our stand abundantly clear on the matter.

Ours is a coalition of young people who constitute 65% of the voting population in Benue South Senatorial District, otherwise known as Zone C. Our membership cuts across the nine local government areas of the zone, and we have a presence in each polling unit of the area. Any political party that takes the people of Zone C for granted does so at its own peril. We may belong to different political parties but the interest of the zone is paramount to us and we are not ready to trade it for any other thing.

The All Progressives Congress, by its action of neglecting the interest of Benue South in its choice of governorship candidate and the running mate has just lost our votes and those of our people!

The decision of APC to pick a placeholder from the Tiv-speaking area was certainly not a mistake. The leadership of the party knew precisely what they were doing. The leader of the party in the state, Senator George Akume has never hidden his hatred for Idoma people. He knew what he was doing when he picked his kinsman as a governorship placeholder. It was his game plan. He had the opportunity to choose a placeholder from Zone C but declined until the time INEC allocated for the exercise was over.

When the discussion to choose a deputy governorship candidate started in APC, our prominent elders led by former Senate President, Chief Ameh Ebute, who was accompanied by 13 others from Zone C protested and petitioned Akume’s decision to pick former Minister of state Sam Ode as running mate. The reasons the elders gave represented the feelings of other members of the APC in Benue South. They demanded that stakeholders from the zone should be allowed to choose a running mate. Their concerns and demand were ignored. Today, what they foresaw has befallen the party.

Our Stand

We state unequivocally that we in Benue South will reject the political party that has treated us like toilet paper. We will support only the party that sees us as fellow human beings. APC has dug its grave in Zone C and buried itself. We have nothing against our Tiv brothers. Politics is a game of interest. We are only protecting our interest.

If the APC is not in government but is treating us from Zone C like unwanted people, imagine what the party will do to us if they get power! We say no to Tiv-Tiv ticket!

We commend other political parties such as the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and Labour Party, LP for picking their deputy governorship candidates from Zone C. That is what should be. Democracy must be anchored on justice, fairness and inclusiveness.

As from this week, we the youths of Zone C will embark on a door-to-door sensitization of our people to vehemently reject APC in our land. This we must do to show those selfish leaders in the party that we mean every word of what we are saying. By the end of this month, there will be nothing left of the APC in Benue South.

Lastly, we advise our people in Zone C to remain calm and focused on the coming elections in 2023. We must take our destiny in our hands.