The political internal crisis in Benue state has continued to muscle up over ministerial slot which is said to be based on speculations of tribal Marginalisation within the state.
On Thursday, The Benue State Inter-tribal Association in Politics, BSITAP, an umbrella body for inter-tribal political disputes in Benue State, distanced itself from a Tiv nomination for ministerial appointment, insists on Idoma person for Minister under the Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s led administration.
While making this known to the press on Thursday in Makurdi, Benue State, the Chairman of the Association, Ene Ngutor, said the nomination of Prof. Joseph Utsev, a Tiv person, is not a wise idea stressing on maintaining the peaceful way of shared political designation amongst the two tribes in the state.
The secretary of the Association, Ocholohi Ogolekwu, also speaking, called on the federal government through the SGF, Sen. George Akume to consider his son, Dr. Raymond Edoh for the Ministerial appointment to avoid unnecessary controversy.
“Sen. George Akume is a son in whom we are all pleased and proud in Benue State. He has never disappointed us, and would not. He has never turned us down on any request taken to him and we know he wouldn’t, on this. Please, give room for the already existing mutual political understanding between the two tribes in Benue State, we plead you to speak with the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to withdraw the ministerial nominee from Benue State, not on the basis of incompetence, but to give this mutual understand and precedence a chance amongst us all in the state.
“We are calling on President Ahmed Bola Tinubu through our son Sen. George Akume to consider Dr. Raymond Edoh an Idoma Man to take over the ministerial slot for Benue State. He has worked hard for the party and still working hard and should be given a chance to serve in that capacity,” he added.
Recall that last week, the Former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, led some stakeholders of Idoma extraction under the algae of Coalition for the Survival of Nigeria, CSN, to address a press conference where they expressed misgivings over the inclusion of a Tiv man, Professor Joseph Utsev, as the ministerial nominee from Benue state which is a contrary norm in the state because a Tiv man in the person of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Former Governor of Benue State, Sen. George Akume is already a portfolio holder in the same government. “It was expected of him, Sen. George Akume to have played kindly and judiciously nominate an Idoma person for a ministerial appointment knowing fully the funneled precedence that has been established and carefully followed for decades in the Benue State Politics.
The former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Igbeh, said, Sen. George Akume under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has marginalized the Idoma race in the scheme of things in Benue state, calling on the federal government to critically look into it as a matter of urgency, to maintain the already established precedence by nominating an Idoma man for the ministerial slot especially since he has an Idoma son in his political camp in person of Dr. Raymond Edoh, a loyal party boy who is making Nigerians and the good people of Benue State proud both from home and abroad.