…Gov Bars Speaker Dajoh From Speaking At Security Outfit Launch
…ALGON Funds Used For Purchase of Security Vehicles – Akura
By Tordue Gudu, Makurdi
A cold war is brewing between the Governor of Benue State, Hyacinth Alia and members of the State House of Assembly. The main source of the face-off is the insistence of the legislators that the governor must follow due process and also end the stench of corruption oozing from his administration.
Last week, the House, on receiving its Ad Hoc Committee’s report on investigation of the 23 local government areas and deliberating over it, demanded that the Chairman, Benue State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Grace Adagba should account for N2,073,779,218.07 (N2.07 billion) being balance of the funds received from the Bureau of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs between December, 2023 and June, 2024.
The House similarly demanded that the Special Adviser to the Governor on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs should refund the sum of N1,782,000,000.00 (N1.7 billion) being the total of the N9,000,000.00 (N9 million) siphoned from the monthly security votes of the local government councils in the state from October, 2023 to June, 2024 for 9 months and report back to the House within one month with evidence of the refund.
The revelation by the House immediately brought pressure on Governor Alia to suspend the SUBEB Chairman Grace Adagba. The governor has however shunned the report of the Assembly and ignored all calls for the suspension of the SUBEB chairman. The governor is said to be angry that the Assembly had the guts to make public incidents of corruption in his administration, particularly the part of the indictment of the SUBEB chairman Grace Adaga.
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The woman is believed to have a relationship with Governor Alia that is deeper than mere boss-appointee relationship. She is informally addressed as the First Lady of Benue State. Grace is said to wield a huge influence and power in the Alia administration and can cause the sack of any appointee who dares her.
The cold war between Governor Alia and the State Assembly took a visible turn during the launch last Saturday during the launch of the security organization at IBB Square in Makurdi. The Speaker Aondona Dajoh was at the event but was snubbed by protocol and was denied the chance to speak at the ceremony. In normal circumstances, the Speaker should have been given a prominent position at the event because it was the Assembly which he presides over that passed the bill that became the law for the civil protection guards. But governor Alia gave strict directives to the protocol team and masters of ceremony that the Speaker must not be allowed to speak on the occasion.
The State Assembly members recently received the shock of their lives when they discovered that Governor Alia has declined assent to most of the bills they have passed since last year, without giving any concrete reasons. The lawmakers accosted the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and Public Order, Barrister Fidelis Mnyim and demanded answers to why the bills they passed have not been signed by the governor. The Attorney General pleaded with the House not to make the matter public by inviting him to appear in its plenary session, promising to speak with his principal and get back to the Assembly in private. The Attorney General who recently returned from suspension is afraid that any other incident will cost him his job.
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Meanwhile, the recently sacked Special Adviser to the Governor on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Dennis Akura has revealed that contrary to the claim by the Governor, the vehicles put on display at the launch of the security organization on Saturday were purchased with funds deducted from allocations of the 23 local governments and not the state government funds.
Dennis Akura made the disclosure in a statement he personally signed and released on Saturday evening. The statement read in part:
“During my time, strict monitoring was launched which guided the purchase of 50 Hilux and 300 hundred Bajaj motorcycles by the management of ALGON for donation to security and members of the local government Council across the 23 Local Government and other numerous achievements in the area of Security”, Akura stated.
This is another bombshell on Alia’s claim of purity and integrity. The Governor has been further exposed as a man who says the exact opposite of what he does.
As the logjam continues, the Benue State Assembly has insisted that the SUBEB Chairman Mrs Grace Adagba must appear before it tomorrow, Tuesday the 17th of December, 2024 to answer questions on the reported cases of corruption under her agency and the recent recruitment of teachers that SUBEB carried out without the approval of the House, a move that ran contrary to the laid down procedures.
It is yet to be seen if Governor Alia will allow Mrs Adagba to honour the summon of the House of Assembly or not.
Some analysts are of the opinion that a man who violated the rules of the church by going into partisan politics and was suspended but didn’t show any sign of remorse should not be expected to respect ordinary human beings in the state assembly.
