Benue APC reconciliation deadlocks over communique

The peace and reconciliation meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State held last Sunday appears to have hit a major setback following a communique allegedly issued by a group loyal to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume.

The communique, published in some national dailies, claimed that the issue of automatic tickets had been jointly resolved by Governor Hyacinth Alia and the SGF, Senator George Akume.

But in a swift response to the publication, the state deputy governor and chairman of the communique drafting committee, Sam Ode, said in a statement on Tuesday that the draft copy of the communique had been forwarded to Governor Hyacinth Alia and the SGF on Monday for vetting.

Ode alleged that those who planted the communique in the national dailies stole their signatures.

He said, “At the end of our conclusion of our meeting, draft of what we did was sent to the Governor of Benue State for him to vet, make his inputs and send approval to us to do a clean copy.

“A copy was also sent to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation through the Minister of Water Resources for him to also make his inputs and then also send whatever it is that he needed to do.

“At the end of the day, members of the communique drafting committee sat here and we wrote an attendance. Nobody can show you a document where we said we attach our signatures as a signature to that draft committee.”

The deputy governor further said, “It is the signature of the Governor of Benue State and that of the SGF, who is a co-convener, that will be on the final copy of the communique as authorising officers. It was not our duty as a communique drafting committee to sign on their behalf.

“So how somebody has mischievously taken our attendance register and attached it to a so-called communique and released it to the public is something that is quite intriguing.

“But I must emphasise that at no time in our communique did we mention the word automatic ticket for National Assembly members, State Assembly members, or anybody for that matter. We never mentioned anything like that.

“Whoever has mischievously sponsored that publication in circulation is doing gross disservice to the Governor of Benue State, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sen. George Akume, the APC family, as well as the principles and spirit of the ongoing reconciliation and peace efforts.

“It is on record that at the meeting, the National Vice Chairman of the APC, Alh. Muhammed Muazu Bawa, spelt out clearly that the decision of the party was to adopt direct primaries to nominate candidates.”

It would be recalled that both the SGF and the governor differed on the issue of automatic tickets after the peace meeting on Sunday.

While the SGF said the President had ordered automatic tickets for all members of the state and National Assembly, including the governor, the governor insisted that the issue was beyond him and the SGF, adding that both the national chairman of the party and the President had said there would be no automatic tickets.