Benue State Government is locked in a war of words with presidential assistant on public affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe. This ‘war’ pivots around allegations that the latter’s firm, Value Trust Limited, failed to fully execute a road construction contract awarded in 2004. To raise the ante, Benue State Government penultimate week dragged Okupe before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The government requested the Commission to help recover N635.7 million from the presidential aide, money it said was the balance of the “failed” contract. Okupe has since fired back. He accused the state government of mischief and deliberately distorting the facts. If anybody is to refund money, claimed the presidential aide, it should be Benue State. Okupe insisted the government still owed his company N358 million “for work already done.” He further expressed surprise that the Benue State Government couldn’t draw a distinction between his person and the corporate entity Value Trust Limited. Even with the matter before EFCC, the verbal ping pong has shown little signs of abating.
Meanwhile, sandwiched between Okupe and the state government is George Akume, the immediate past governor of the state, now Senate Minority Leader. The state government, led by Governor Gabriel Suswam, had accused Akume of allowing Okupe’s company to pocket over N637 million. The former governor, it said, concealed details of what it called a “failed” road contract and swore to deploy all legal means, including EFCC, to recover the money. Like Okupe, the former governor has fired back. He accused his successor of lying. According to Akume, the transition and hand-over notes Suswam inherited in 2007 contained details of all assets and liabilities of the Benue State Government, including the Value Trust road contract. Governor Suswam has yet to personally join issues with his predecessor on this matter.
However, the positions adopted by some of his most trusted aides on the matter suggest the hand of Esau at play. Akume was governor between 1999 and 2007, after which he handed over to Suswam. At the time many considered theirs a political romance made in heaven. The former governor had battled the odds to ensure his political godson succeeded him. Not even a political tackle from the then President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, could stop Akume from installing Suswam governor. Thereafter, the former governor took a seat in the Senate. However, no sooner had Suswam, a two-term federal lawmaker been sworn-in, than the cracks emerged. At the onset, godfather and godson dismissed reports on their differences as the handiwork of “mischief makers.” They had assured the whole world that all was well.
However, before Suswam’s first tenure ended in 2011, the cracks had grown to become a huge gulf- forcing Akume to defect to the rival Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Through mastery of the political turf, the former governor was able to snake his way through the minefield to return to the Senate. Enter Senate President David Mark The question on the lips of analysts of Benue politics is why Governor Suwam, a man who often prides himself as a friend of the Presidency, would now seek to so embarrass the same Presidency? In other words, why did Suswam chose to so tar the credibility of Okupe, a man invited few weeks ago to help launder the image of the Jonathan Presidency?
Daily Sun checks reveal that Governor Suswam may have fallen out of favour with the Jonathan Presidency and may have, therefore, chosen Okupe to get even. The issues, Daily Sun gathered, may not be unconnected with the battle for the soul of Benue PDP between Suswam and Senate President, David Mark. In this battle, President Goodluck Jonathan apparently sided with Mark, his political ally. At the last congresses of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), alleged loyalists of Governor Suswan filled up party positions in Benue State. The move was said to have greatly upset other PDP stakeholders in the state, notably Senate President Mark. Equally piqued was former national chairman of the party, Barnabas Gemade, a serving senator and trustee of the party.
Thus was the status quo until July 28, when after a meeting of its National Working Committee, PDP deputy national chairman, Dr. Sam Jaja announced the scrapping of the party executives in Benue, Taraba, Ogun and Ondo states. The announcement was considered the culmination of several moves by Suswam to save the Dr. Emmanuel Agbo-led party executive in his state. With the listing of fresh congresses for Beune, it became obvious Senate President Mark had gained the upper hand leaving the governor thoroughly humiliated. The first signs that the announcement may not have gone down well with supporters of Governor Suswam didn’t take long in emerging. Some two weeks ago, embattled deputy PDP chairman of the state chapter, Mr. Joseph Nyam, told reporters in Markurdi, the state capital, that the announcement to hold fresh congresses in his state only existed on the pages of newspapers.
“As I speak to you now (sic), we have not received any petition to warrant a repeat congress in the state. We are not aware of the directive from the headquarters to conduct a fresh election. “As far as we are concerned, the decision of the national PDP to conduct fresh election was seen on the pages of newspapers. We had elections in all areas in the state peacefully except for Okpokwu local government and 15 wards where there was reported disagreement among party faithfuls, but the state chairman has travelled to Abuja to sort out the scheduled date for election in those areas. We will know a definite date when he returns,” Nyam was quoted as saying.
Affirming Nyam’s position, Suswam’s Media Adviser, Dr. Cletus Akwaya told Daily Sun last week that at no time was Benue listed among the states to conduct fresh congresses. Echoing the position of his party’s deputy chairman, Akwaya said “the repeat congress were ordered in just one LGA-Okpokwu,” stressing with an air of triumph, “so it is not the entire state.” Apparently to drive home the message, the governor’s spokesman assured, “there is no rift between Governor Suswam and the PDP hierarchy over fresh congresses.” The denials notwithstanding, sources at the PDP national secretariat, Abuja, likened the announcement for fresh congresses in Benue State to a “thunderbolt.” Said one of the sources: “Governor Suswan had before the announcement considered himself home and dry.
The listing of Benue therefore struck him like a thunderbolt.” When Daily Sun launched a probe into why a second term governor would so dearly want to still control his party, it emerged that post-2015 political interests of the political gladiators in the state may be responsible. One of Suswam’s colleagues in the House of Representatives told Daily Sun there were indications that Senate President David Mark is desirous of installing an Idoma as governor, reason he seeks to determine the PDP structure. In the history of Benue State, the closest the Idoma, a minority tribe, have been to power is the deputy governorship. Mark is reportedly encouraged by the recent emergence of governors from minority ethnic groups in some states.
A case in point is Delta State. On the other hand, Suswan is believed to be warming up to displace Gemade as senator representing Benue North senatorial zone. Few weeks ago, prominent political leaders from Gemade’s zone led by Chief Jack Tilley Gyado and Dr. Shenge, publicly endorsed Suswam for Gemade’s seat. Expectedly, Gemade isn’t amused. Benue again? In an ironic twist of fate, a political actor from the same Benue State was exactly 10 years ago locked in a similar political battle with a serving Senate President. The Senate President at the time, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim had dragged his party national chairman, Benue-born Audu Innocent Ogbeha. before the police for allegedly fraudulently seeking to obtain N120 million from him in the name of a party retreat.
Much like Suswam, Anyim raised the allegations shortly after PDP ordered that fresh congresses be held in Anyim’s Ebonyi State. This apparently tilted the odds in favour of t.he Senate President’s political adversary at the time, Governor Sam Egwu. As Ogbeh was struggling to wash himself of the tar stains, his national secretary, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor dealt a sucker punch by faulting claims by his national chairman that the request for N120 million was jointly decided by the party leadership. Again, like Anyim and Suswam, Ogbulafor’s allegation came on the heels of a decision by his party’s NWC that fresh congresses be held in his home state, Abia.
The move, Ogbulafor felt, tilted the odds in favour of the state governor at the time, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu. PDP congresses and sour grapes From the creation of PDP, in August 1998, no issue has so divided the party as its congresses and primaries. From Ogbeh-Anyim-Ogbulafor, in 2002, to Mark-Suwam-Okupe, in 2012, it is becoming increasingly clear that whenever the political egos of top PDP members are bruised, they resort to the Samson option- pulling down the PDP house, not minding the implications for the reputation of the party. As things stand, Benue State government has headed for EFCC, much the same way Anyim invited the police in 2002.
Interestingly nothing has been heard of Anyim’s complaint to the police, particularly since the 2003 elections. Benue’s matter before EFCC is still fresh. Is there a possibility that like other politically-driven matters before, Benue State, nay Suswam, will before his term runs out in 2015, ala Anyim beat a retreat? Perhaps.
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