Newly elected chairman of Benue State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Austin Agada, has appreciated his supporters on the successful conduct of the state congress held at Aper Aku Stadium in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
Agada told newsmen in Makurdi, that the sacrifices of men and women who stayed through the night and participated in the congress would not be in vain.
At a press conference he held at the weekend, Agada said that though many initially purchased forms for different positions at the state congress, consensus were reached except for the position of state chairman, leading to a full scale election in line with the party’s constitution and guidelines.
Agada said that the result of the election to the state chairmanship position was announced by the chief returning officer for the APC 2021 State Congress and Committee chairman, Mohammed Abubakar, is as follows: Bar Omale Omale – 27, Hon. Austin Agada – 1385, and invalid votes – 6.
He urged members to have faith in the firm and visionary leadership of Senator George Akume as the party seeks a common ground to harmonize its interests for a stronger Benue APC in the state.
His rival, Omale Omale contested the party’s chairmanship seat but later boycotted the exercise at the venue.
Our correspondent observed that barely 24-hours after the congress, there were two lists of the new party’s executives circulated on the social media space, one was headed by Agada and the other Omale.
Due to the development, Dr Stephen Tsav, the newly elected deputy chairman of APC in the state and 34 other members of the executive at a press conference on Thursday in Makurdi threw their weight behind Agada and disassociated themselves from the Omaleheaded executives.
He said, “We have disassociated ourselves from the purported list of exco members being paraded by Barr Omale Omale who clearly lost to Hon. Austin Agada at the state congress.
“It is an incurable absurdity that Barr Omale who submitted himself to an election could not be reached, during the congress and was resoundingly rejected by an overwhelming majority of the delegates to the state congress, will turn around to lay false claims to the state chairmanship position of our party on the fictitious ground that he was the consensus candidate for the position.”
But in a swift reaction, Omale questioned the audacity of the exco-elect, stating that they arrogated to themselves the prerogative to determine who the exco of the APC for the 2021 state congress should be.
“This shows clearly that the people that I am set to work with at the close of all congress process, are not in themselves seeing the provision of the congress and the guidelines issued under the hands of the national leadership of our party to wit the caretaker extra-ordinaire convention planning committee who issued a guideline for the conduct of state congress.
“It is permissive that they did this in ignorance and in error or that whosoever masterminded the said meeting and press conference, did it with the ill motive that they have all concocted and orchestrated to destroy our party in Benue.
