By Steve Tyover
The suspended priest who is the governor of Benue state Hyacinth Alia has disgracefully asked the Department of State Services (DSS) to free the 82-year old widow of the late respected elder Chief Aker Gajir. Chief Mrs Veronica Gajir, the chairman of Ushongo local government was detained for many days with her counterparts from Ado, Guma and Katsina-Ala.
It was the height of dictatorship by someone who calls himself a man of God to order the arrest and detention of the four local government chairmen without anyone bothering to tell them their offense.
During the election, Alia was all over the place bragging that he would grant local government autonomy, but his actions so far have shown that the local governments in Benue state are in for the worst era in their history. He started by forcing the Benue state House of Assembly to suspend all the 23 local government chairmen before asking them to come to defend themselves. The four council chairmen who were first to arrive were immediately arrested and taken to DSS office in Makurdi where they were kept for more than a week.
Alia’s first month and one week stay in office has made many people who voted for him to regret wasting their votes on a man who does not care about the people. He promised civil servants that every 25th of the month, they will receive their salaries, but since that eye-service payment on Sunday 25th of June to a few government agencies and ministries, no one has seen anything again.
But during the reception for him in his local Vandeikya today, he lied that he has paid every civil servant their salary. Many people who were at the event got very angry and left the stadium where the reception took place.
To make matters worse, the suspended priest has started a fake screening of workers just to cover up his failure to pay the civil servants their due. Everyday, he announces the discovery of ghost workers but he is saying nothing about the payment of those who are not ghost workers. Staff of BSU, TSB, secondary school teachers, primary school teachers and local government workers have not been paid!
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In his 2nd week in office, Alia went and bought a car for himself worth N500 million. The purchase of the car caused a lot of insults on him to the extent that he decided not to bring it to Benue state now. The suspended priest has also bought two houses for himself in Abuja and is building a personal estate in Makurdi.
The man has disappointed even his ardent supporters. He is clueless. He has no idea of what to do with the mandate given to him.
Benue people made a big mistake on the 18th of March 2023!
