Don’t be misled, Benue gov tells Senate

Benue State Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia has urged the Senate to rescind its plan of withholding allocation of non-democratically elected local government chairmen in the country.

The Senate on Friday while debating the motion raised by the Senate minority leader, Abba Moro, (Benue South) called for withholding of statutory allocations to non-democratically elected local government councils across the country.

Alia who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Kula Tersoo, at a press conference held in Makurdi on Saturday night said that the senate minority leader misled the Senate on the issue of local government position in the state.

The governor said that there was never a time he dissolved the democratically elected local government leadership in the state.

However, the State House of Assembly vested with the constitutional powers to legislate over the third tier of government dissolved the council members, citing sections 7 and 8 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.

The governor said he only appointed caretaker committees to avoid lacunas that would have been created following the recommendations of the Benue State House of Assembly investigated, indicted, and sacked the 23 elected chairmen who were found to have perpetrated monumental fraud in their councils in active connivance with various councilors.

The governor said that contrary to the impression given by the senate minority leader that his administration did not appeal the earlier court judgment, ‘Benue state Government appealed the judgment of the Industrial Court.

“The appeal was filed on the 24th November 2023, and numbered, Appeal No. CA/MKD/155/2023

“We are calling on the Nigeria senate to always properly scrutinize their motion papers to avoid a repeat of what Sen. Moro led them into.

“It will be a gross disservice for our distinguished senators to allow some selfish ones amongst them to drag them to becoming a laughing stock,” he said.