*Mark Dispels Notion That Party Has Been Hijacked
By Sam Tyav, Makurdi
The bid to stop President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027 gathered steam in Benue State as the opposition coalition African Democratic Congress (ADC) wooed the State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, to join its ranks.
Both Alia and Tinubu belong to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and reportedly enjoy a warm relationship.
The move to get the governor to ADC’s side occurred on Wednesday, July 9, during the unveiling of the newly constituted interim leadership of the party in the State.
At the event, also, former Senate President and Interim National Chairman of ADC, Senator David Mark, clarified news making the rounds of a possible hijack of the party by certain entrenched interests for sinister purposes. Dispelling the notion, he explained that ADC is owned by noone,but belongs to its members nationwide.
The party’s Protem State Chairman, Chief Terngu Tsegba, while fielding questions from journalists, said: “Governor Hyacinth Alia is welcome to join the party if he so desires.”
Chief Tsegba said that members of other political parties were already collapsing their structures into the ADC and more were being expected, stressing that the governor was free to follow suit.
According to him, there has been an influx of members of other political parties into the ADC, pointing out that anybody was welcome to the party.
“If he (Gov. Alia) wants to join the ADC, he is welcome, provided he satisfies the requirements of the party,” Chief Tsegba said.
Tsegba, who was Speaker pro tempore of the House of Representatives at a time, revealed that he and others had already resigned their membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), maintaining that they were in ADC to change the fortunes of the people, beginning at the local level and the entire country.
Tsegba expressed confidence that ADC would take over Benue State, promising that an ADC-led government would frontally address the vexed issue of insecurity in the North-Central State where hundreds had been killed by armed herdsmen over time.
He explained that if insecurity is tamed in Benue State, then farmers could go to their farms, boosting food productivity and ending the prevailing mass hunger in the process, while small businesses would thrive again.
“So, the first issue we are going to confront as a party and as a government is to arrest the insecurity in the State, return our people to their ancestral homes and then grant autonomy to Local Governments,” he said.
The ADC Chairman noted that if the Local Governments receive their statutory allocations directly from the Federal Government, then most of the things the State government cannot do at the grassroots level, would routinely be handled by the Local Governments.
Tsegba insisted that part of what the party would do when it comes to power in the State would be to scrap the Bureau for Local Governments and return payment of allocations directly to the Local Governments.
Also speaking, Senator Gabriel Suswam, while unveiling the party, stated that the coalition was born out of necessity as the PDP, APC, Labour Party (LP), and other parties had been plagued by incessant internal crises, underscoring the need for ADC.
Taking his turn to spoke, Senator Mark explained that all members of the party owned ADC and have equal rights in the party.
Represented at the event by Senator Suswam, the former Senate President urged all members to contribute to the growth of the party, corroborating earlier position by Chief Tsegba that persons other political parties were welcome.
The National Chairman warned that ADC does not tolerate violence, stressing that all issues would be addressed at a roundtable.
He called on stakeholders from the various Local Government Areas (LGAs) to nominate three persons from each LGA for interim leadership, saying they must comprise two men and a woman, to reflect gender balancing.
According to him, in each council ward stakeholders should nominate five persons for interim leadership, comprising three men and two women.
