2023: Alia’s Attack on Ortom And Former Benue Governors Unfortunate- Akase

From Rose Ejembi and Scholastica Onyeka, Makurdi

Fr. Alia, in a recent outing, was quoted to have described the present and all past Governors of the state as failures who have only contributed to its underdevelopment since 1976.

In the said statement, the APC governorship hopeful was said to have also boasted that he is on a messianic mission as the only one in the entire state who has the capacity to liberate Benue from what he called “unconscionable looting of public funds” since the state was created.

Akase said, “The unguarded utterances of the suspended priest were to say the least, shocking, ridiculous and unfortunate, coming from a man who has never in his life been tested in any public office, not even at the Council Ward level and therefore totally lacks the capacity to fathom what it takes to govern a state.

“Alia’s condemnation of all past and present Governors of Benue State, the likes of the late Aper Aku, the late Rev Father Moses Adasu, Senators George Akume and Gabriel Suswam, as well as the incumbent Samuel Ortom as looters and failed Governors rather casts serious questions on his credentials as an aspiring leader. A man who wants to be king does not kill a king.”

Akase who described the priest as contumacious said he, Alia, is playing to the gallery to curry unmerited favour and praise from unsuspecting Benue people adding “His attack on the present and previous administrations in the state smacks of hypocrisy, mischief and crass ignorance of what development entails.

“We challenge Alia to publish his track record of achievements qualifying him to seek the office of Governor. Becoming a Governor takes more than merely dancing to the vulgar songs of party supporters who insult opponents daily on the streets.

“Here is a man who does not have any evidence of development in all the places where he worked as a priest before his suspension by the Church. If he could not bring growth to any of the Churches where he served, how can he develop a large entity like the state?”

While lamenting that thousands of Benue people have been displaced as a result of flooding and herdsmen attacks, Akase noted that “Alia who claims to love the people and “wants to liberate them” has never visited any of the IDP camps to support and pray for the victims. Service to the people does not only happen when a man becomes a Governor.

“An aspirant whose name is not found in the register of the party he claims to be flying its flag needs to be bothered about the web of controversies surrounding his emergence, more than what the previous governments did and what the next Governor of the state plans to do.

“The belligerent and purported APC candidate ought to face his plethora of legal battles arising from the yahoo yahoo primaries conducted by the party which produced him, yet, as a dubious character, he openly hailed the process as transparent.

In a statement, Akase who stated that the Benue people are already weary of Alia’s undercover deals to connive with powerful interests outside the state to trade the people for a pot of porridge insisted, “Governor Ortom and the former Benue Governors (except one) had no hand in the blunders and willful disregard for due process that characterized the APC primaries in which Alia was a mismatched beneficiary.”