From Scholastica Onyeka, Makurdi
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdulahi Adamu, has urged the Benue people to ensure they recover the party’s stolen mandate from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) by voting massively for the party in the forthcoming general elections.
Adamu stated this on Tuesday at the official flag-off of Alialization Alia/Ode 2023 gubernatorial campaign in the Gboko Local Government Area of the state.
Speaking through the National APC Vice Chairman, North Central, Alhaji Mu’azu Rijau, Adamu said with the loyalty of Benue people to APC and the landmark achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, APC must return to power in the state come 2023.
He urged Benue people to go all out to canvass votes to ensure the overwhelming victory of the party candidates to recover what was stolen from them in 2015.
Speaking, the Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Senator George Akume, said the plot to frustrate the election of the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu and his running mate, Kasheem Shetima, using the Muslim-Muslim issue has already failed.
According to him, the state had voted massively for the Abiola/Kingibe ticket, another Muslim-Muslim ticket saying the people want someone with the capacity to drive the nation to greater heights.
Akume urged the Benue people to support the governorship candidate of the party, Rev Fr Alia, saying he needs the support of Abuja to be able to win and solve the problems in the state.
Governorship candidate APC in Benue, Fr Hyacinth Alia, said the people are going through severe hardship under Ortom’s administration and promised that if elected, he will bring smiles to the faces of the people.
He pledged security and lives and property and return Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their ancestral homes, rehabilitation and equipment of general hospitals across, improved agriculture to put the state prominently on the map of development as well as built cottage industries to check unemployment, among others.
The Director General, Alia/Ode Campaign Organisation, Rev. Frederick Ikyaan, described the campaign flag-off as a historical event as it officially marks the commencement of the emancipation of the Benue people from the shackles of poverty and confusion in Benue state characterised by deprivation, ineptitude and negligence.
“The day heralds the conscious and vehement decision of Benue people to launch a leadership campaign that is purposeful and divinely prepared to meet the yearnings and aspirations of the teeming Benue masses.
Ikyaan who called on Benue people to key into the Alia movement said when elected, he will offer “Leadership that God Himself had conceived and hatched through his servant from his vineyard. God cannot make a mistake by this choice hence, the need for all to be part of this success story.”