Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
The Benue State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged the electorate to vote out Sen. George Akume as Senator representing the Benue North/West Senatorial District in the 2019 general elections.
The PDP, while saying that the Benue APC leader lacks the capacity to function as a senator, it also said he (Akume) should be voted out to give room to someone more capable and passionate about offering quality representation to the people of the District at the Senate.
In a statement signed by the state Publicity Secretary of PDP, Bemgba Iortyom and made available to Daily Sun, the PDP stated that a recent motion moved on the floor of the Senate indicated that the leadership of this country is in the hands of indolent and incompetent people.
“This motion loudly echoed the fact that in the face of the grave threat posed to national security by a globally-ranked terrorist group, Boko Haram, the affairs of the Army, which is the most critical wing of the country’s security apparatus, have been left unsupervised by the Senate through a committee duly constituted and given constitutional powers to watch over it.
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“The Chairman of that committee, Sen. George Akume, was not even at plenary on the day this motion was move by his deputy, confirming the fact of his chronic absenteeism at the Senate.
“But the National Assembly, through its Committee on Army, has the responsibility to assess the performance and needs of the Army with the aim to ensuring that it is kept in a state of preparedness sufficient for it to be able to successfully defend the territorial integrity of our country.
“This could only be achieved through regular oversight visits to the Army’s administrative and operational structures, in the course of which progress made could be ascertained and problems being faced analysed and tackled to keep the Army on top of the security situation, particularly at a time such as now when it is at war with the Boko Haram terrorist group.
“The correlation here is that the neglect of the Army by the Senator George Akume-led committee has left it operating without the necessary supervision of the Nigerian people, and there is no way the leadership of this committee can be absolved of guilt in the latest setbacks suffered by the Army, the highpoint of which is this recent massacre of troops at Metele,” the statement read.
