By Michael Agbaji
My attention has been drawn to a press release by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor of Benue State, Fr. Hyacinth Alia titled, THICK PLOTS TO DESTABILIZE ALIA’S GOVERNMENT UNCOVERED, wherein I was accused of knowing the root cause of insecurity in Benue State and discreetly cooking crooked plans to destabilize the state.
The hastily concocted and attention-seeking press release should ordinarily not deserve a response from me but for the unsuspecting reading public that stands to be misinformed and misled if the records are not put into proper perspectives.
It is absurd, uncharitable and laughable for the government of Benue State to accuse me of plots to destabilize Benue State after all my efforts to support the government of Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia. I want to believe that the governor did not see the content of the press release by his CPS.
For the records, in his hotel room in Abuja and his house in Makurdi, I had severally advised the governor against dissolving the democratically elected councils in Benue State. I had advised that as a governor who’s a Reverend Father and who had sworn to uphold the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he should be different from the ordinary politician, but he yielded to the pressure from the hawks around him who believed it was their turn to take over the local government areas.
Dissolving democratically elected councils and setting up caretaker committees is against the grain of the constitution, is an aberration, illegal and alien to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
It was when all my entreaties fell on deaf ears that I did that which any responsible lawmaker representing the people would do. I moved a motion to draw the attention of Nigerians to the illegality in dissolving democratically elected councils in Benue State and other states in Nigeria and called on the senate to resolve to reverse the trend. And to serve as deterrent, I urged the senate to resolve to urge the Federal Government to withhold federation account allocations to the illegal entities called caretaker committees as not to do so would amount to encouraging illegality and unconstitutionality.
To be so paranoid about my innocuous legislative action and bringing it up at every conversation smacks of a government that has lost focus and the machinery of government. My motion never contained security or insecurity elements.If the Benue State Government now suddenly acknowledges that her action in desolving democratically elected councils has security implications then the responsible thing to do is to have the courage to reverse herself. I also advised the governor of Benue State at that early stage to appoint a security adviser and convoke a security Stakeholders’ meeting to review the security situation in Benue State. This certainly cannot be coming from someone plotting to destabilize Benue State.
The penultimate press conference held by the National Assembly caucus of Benue State was intended to address the security situation in Benue State after the meeting of the senate and security Stakeholders, calling on the federal and state governments to review their security architectures and confront the menace of insecurity frontally. It nothing to do with the illegal sacking of the democratically elected councils.
I find the aggressive response by the Benue State Government to the harmless and patriotic outcry of the Benue State National Assembly caucus concerning the suffering of Benue people in the hands of herders as very unfortunate and smacks of irresponsibility and cluelessness. And to single out senator Abba Moro and Hon. Phillip Agbese for attacks smacks of a contrived vendetta against a people.
In the press release by the National Assembly caucus on Wednesday, which I read, the security situation in Benue was never attributed to the dissolution of elected councils. I wonder how governor Alia is comfortably carrying on like nothing is happening, when Benue people are being killed and chased away from their ancestral homes without any form of resistance and not even a visit to the affected communities by the Chief Security Officer of the state, the governor to identify with the people or even a statement fromgovernment house. Not even to provide camps for displaced persons in Zone C let alone ask the Benue State Emergency Management Agency (BSEMA) to provide relief materials to the people.
I represent NINE LGAs, out of 23, in the Senate and cannot keep quiet and pretend that all is well with my people when all is not well. My effort and that of other senators resulted in the marathon meeting that the Nigerian Senate had with Service Chiefs and many other relevant persons on Tuesday, 13th February, 2024. This is in addition to the personal efforts I have been making towards alleviating the pains of those directly affected by the mindless attacks.
As representatives of the people, we feel their pains and share in their worries and fears and we will continue to speak for them not minding whose ox is gored. We are not discreetly cooking any crooked plans to destabilize the state, as maliciously alleged, but only interested in a state where her citizens sleep with their eyes closed and can move about freely without fear of attack.
I urge the state government to sit up and carry out its constitutional responsibility of protecting lives and property of the people rather than chasing imaginary enemies. If the governor and his handlers are not bothered and worried about the happenings in the state, we are worried and will continue to speak out until the right things are done and our people begin to have peace in their homes.
The general public and the good people of Benue State in particular are enjoined to disregard the watery and baseless statement as it’s merely a calculated attempt by the authors to shift blames, run away from their responsibilities, divert attention from their failures and instigate the public against the Benue State National Assembly Caucus and I.
My humble advice to the governor, as always, is not to soil all his plates with palm oil as he may not find one to eat with when the need arises.
