2nd August, 2023
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State observes with grave concern serial breaches of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by Governor Hyacinth Alia, since his assumption of office on May 29, 2023.
Fundamental to those breaches observed by PDP so far is the failure by the governor to submit a list of Commissioners to the Benue State House of Assembly for screening and possible confirmation to be appointed into his cabinet, as required by law.
By the provisions of Section 147 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended by the Fifth Alteration No. 23 of 2023) the Governor of Benue State is under mandatory obligation of law to submit names of nominees for screening and confirmation as commissioners to be appointed into his cabinet within 60 days of his taking oath of office.
However, the Benue State Governor failed to adhere to this requirement of law and, rather on deadline day, July 27, 2023, the Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly, Hyacinth Dajoh, had read to members of the House at plenary a letter and purported same to have come from the governor in respect of a list of nominees for appointment as Commissioners into his cabinet, but the Speaker had declined making known those nominees.
Speaker Dajoh had said that the identities of those "Ghost Nominees" of Mr. Governor will be made known at some later date, but to this day they remain unknown to the people, neither is there any semblance of a screening exercise to be done for them.
But while this has been the case, the Benue State Governor has been conducting the business of governance as a sole administrator, and has also arbitrarily placed under lock and key the bank accounts of the entire structure of government in the state, thereby grounding the day to day running of MDAs.
PDP is aware that Governor Alia opens those accounts of government to make financial withdrawals as he deems fit and closes them back again, in the fashion of running government under emergency law in time of war, and this raises for us as a party the following legal issues:
Whether by the clear and unambiguous aforementioned provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Governor of Benue State, Hyacinth Alia, can at his discretion choose to constitute his cabinet outside of the 60 days limit as required by law.
Whether the failure by the Benue State Governor to send a list of nominees to the Benue State House of Assembly for screening and confirmation for appointment as commissioners does not amount to willful violation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which is the grund norm upon which he derives his legitimacy as governor.
Whether his failure or refusal to submit a list of Commissionership nominees to the state Assembly for screening and confirmation within 60 days as required under the aforementioned law gives him the leeway to run a one-man show administration in the course of which he is approving sums of expenditure above the spending limit permitted his office under law.
Whether the willful violation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as altered) by the Governor of Benue State, Alia, does not amount to gross misconduct, an impeachable offence, within the meaning and intendment of the same constitution.
This is a government which, running without a cabinet, has been stumbling from one administrative blunder to another resulting in selective payments of wages to workers under a system of arbitrary deductions from the payments made to those lucky enough to be paid, demotions and outright sacking of workers under the nebulous categorisation of those sacked as "Ghost Workers".
This is a one-man show administration which to date has to show for its 65 days in office only the frivolous but expensive travels of the governor in chartered jets and sojourns in 5 Star Luxury hotels across the country which are a huge drain of the purse of the state, while he has forgotten about all the verbose promises he made to the people while campaigning for their votes.
Today, Governor Alia has not shown the roadmap or even a single idea on how to return to their homes people displaced (IDPs) by killer Fulani herdsmen as he had promised during the campaigns to do in the first 100 days of his coming to office.
As a security measure, the Benue State Governor prefers to keep unreported in the media the atrocities of bandits whom he confessed to having a pact with during the campaigns, and whom he refers to as "my brothers in the bush".
This is totally unacceptable to the PDP and indeed the people of Benue State who are bearing the brunt of the inept, incompetent and perfidious manner of governance of Governor Hyacinth Alia, and the party will take all necessary lawful action to challenge and hold this government to account.
Bemgba Iortyom
State Publicity Secretary,
PDP, Benue State.
Comments