By Henry Ibya, Makurdi
Benue State government has requested the senator representing Benue South senatorial district in the National Assembly, Patrick Abba Moro, to tender unreserved apologies for misleading Nigerians, particularly the senate over constitution of caretaker committees to run affairs of the third tier of government, describing his action as clear intention to curry cheap political support for his party the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Addressing a press conference Saturday in Makurdi, in reaction to a motion sponsored by Senator Moro on floor of the senate during plenary that Governor Hyacinth Alia had dissolved democratically elected leadership of the 23 Local Government Councils, chief press secretary to the governor, Tersoo Kula described Moro’s utterances as barefaced lies and unfounded insinuations aimed at manipulating the hallowed chambers.
Kula who was accompanied by special adviser to the governor on Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Dr. Denis Akura, during the press conference, argued that the senator equally misled his colleagues on the status of the court case between the sacked chairmen and Benue government which was decided by the industrial court now at appeal by referring to the sacked chairmen who were investigated by the Benue Assembly, found culpable of what he described as unprecedented fraud for being illegally dissolved.
“To set the records straight, Governor Hyacinth Alia did not dissolve the democratically elected local government leadership in the state”, Kula pointed out, stressing that the dissolution and subsequent sack of the chairmen was done by the Benue State House of Assembly whose constitutional responsibility is to legislate on the third tier of government as enshrined in Section 7 and 8 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
The CPS to the Benue governor further argued that Governor Alia had only appointed caretaker committees to avoid a lacuna that would have been created following recommendations of Benue lawmakers who investigated, indicted and sacked the chairmen over culpability of monumental fraud in their various councils in active connivance with their councilors, advising senator Moro to reconnect with his people if he has lost touch as his member at the Benue Assembly was part of the process.
He wondered why senator Moro who saw no problem in his selection at different times as either sole Administrator or caretaker committee chairman of Okpokwu Local Government Area during the PDP under the same 1999 constitution as amended would suddenly turn round to condemn and described a system he so much benefitted from as erosion of democracy, insisting that senator Aba Moro lacked the moral right to speak against the matter and warned that those who go to equity must do so with clean hands.
The chief press secretary asked senator Moro to recall that during the PDP regime in the state between 2015-2023, as a major stakeholder, affairs of the third tier of government were ran by caretaker committees but heavens did not fall, expressing worry why the senator would suddenly realized appointment of caretaker committees as an erosion of democracy.
While calling on senator Moro to tender apologies to the people of Benue and Nigerians over his misleading motion which compelled the senate to pass a hasty resolution on a matter it lacked jurisdiction, Mr Kula, appealed to the Nigerian senate to always scrutinize their motion papers properly in order not to drag the hallowed chambers name to the mud.