From Scholastica Hir, Makurdi
The youth wing of All Progressives Congress (APC), in Benue State, has called on the state chairman of the party, Comrade Austin Agada, to resign.
The youth said his recent outing over the constitution of the local government caretaker chairmen shows he is lacking in leadership qualities and can no longer continue to chair the party in the state.
This is just as the APC in Ogbadibo Local Government Area (LGA), where the chairman hails from, has also urged him to heed the call to resigned with immediate effect.
The youths made the call through the Special Assistant to the Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia on Youth Mobilisation and Empowerment, Hon Mkeenem Moses.
The Governor’s aide who briefed newsmen in Makurdi on Saturday, explained that “The State Chairman of APC, Comrade Austin Agada, had on November 30, 2023 mobilized the 23 LG chairmen of the party to protest against the appointment of LG Caretaker Committees simply because his preferred candidate in Ogbadibo local government area was not picked.
According to them, the person Mr Agada nominated for the position of vice chairman was not a party member and has no voters card, reason for her rejection.
The youths who said they are satisfied with all the appointed local government caretaker committees as they are all qualified and registered members of the APC said what the chairman did was capable of threatening the peace and security of Benue State.
They argued that “As leader of the party, Comrade Agada was supposed to use appropriate channels to seek redress even if he was aggrieved rather than resort to protest that will culminate into violence.
“Recall that this same Comrade Agada had instigated crisis to mar the peaceful conduct of the speakership election of the 10th Benue Assembly, a misconduct he later apologized and promised not to repeat.
“But Agada is at it again. He has been interfering with all activities even when such issues are not related to politics and within his purview just to cause crisis.
“The youth wing of Benue State therefore call on Comrade Austin Agada to step aside for lack of leadership qualities so that a competent person will takeover and pilot affairs of the party effectively in order to foster peace, progress and unity.”
They also described as fallacy claims by the APC local government chairmen “instigated by Agada” that Governor Alia is not working with the party saying it was unfortunate and condemnable.
“The Governor has been working round the clock to build the broom party as demonstrated in the full support he rendered during the recent stakeholders meeting of the APC in the state.
“Let it be on record that tangible projects are ongoing in Benue and the people are happy with Governor Hyacinth Alia who has been paying salaries and pension regularly and promptly since assumption of office.
“Agada is not a Deputy Governor of Benue State, he cannot be an alternative to the Governor and as such should he not be running a parallel administration,” they said.
Meanwhile, the APC in Ogbadibo local government area, hometown of Mr Agada, has distanced themselves from the action taken by the party chairman and has also asked him to resign.
The Secretary, Comrade Abah Isaac said “We, the APC from Ogbadibo LGA and the good people of Ogbadibo are not in support of what Austin Agada is doing and we choose to say it clearly that we have distance ourselves from whatever he is doing against the leadership and the government of Governor Hyacinth Alia.
The caretaker committee members he chose from Ogbadibo LGA went down well with us except for that of the vice chairman. The lady that is nominated to be the vice chairman, Charity Okpanachi, is not a registered member of our party and she has never participated in any party activities and to make matters worse, she doesn’t have a voter’s card, how can you make such a person caretaker committee member.
If he is accusing the Governor of anti party activities, what can be more anti party than that. We call on the Governor to continue to deal with the Leadership of the party in Ogbadibo in any thing that concerns the LG especially Hon Odoh Ugwu.
He noted that Benue was forgotten in the scheme of things at the national level and that Governor Alia has com to uplift the state. He said Agada should either support the Governor to succeed or resign.