Benue 2023: PDP not behind Alia, APC crisis – Ortom’s aide, Akase

Special Adviser to the Benue State Governor on Media and Publicity and former aspirant for the Benue governorship election, Terver Akase, has said the problem of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its governorship candidate, Reverend Father Alia was self-inflicted as the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Governor Samuel Ortom were not behind the crisis.

Akase said the issue was that of imposition by some set of godfathers who have insisted on Hycienth Alia as against the general wish of other members.

Akase said a majority of APC members do not want Alia and that is why the party has gone to court.

“Majority of the members of the APC didn’t go for him. He was imposed on the party through the yahoo yahoo primary elections by those who brought him.

“His godfather brought him and imposed him on the party. There was no election. They imposed him on the party, wrote results and sent his name to the INEC. He didn’t win any election. There was no primary election. That was why those other aspirants have gone to court because there was no election.

“So the people didn’t vote for him. They were not given the opportunity to vote. So the APC in Benue were not given the opportunity to vote in the primaries.

That is why even their aspirants have gone to court. PDP is not the only one saying so. They have also said so. The appeal panel that came described the election that fraudulently produced him as Yahoo Yahoo election.

“Anyone saying that the PDP is sponsoring the aggrieved APC members is simply saying that the PDP sponsored the appeal panel that described the primary as yahoo yahoo exercise and called those who organized it failures.

“Was it the PDP that set up that panel? This is something that we don’t need to be arguing about. We don’t need to be arguing about that. The APC itself has said no election took place.”

The APC has since argued that a primary election was held in the state and that the ongoing legal tussle over the primary was orchestrated by the PDP and Governor Samuel Ortom just to further divide the party.