By Ijeoma Obioma
The Majority Leader of Benue State House of Assembly, Saater Tiseer, has denied allegation that the State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, snubbed legislators from Benue State House of Assembly (BNHA), led by the Speaker, Aondona Dajoh, who went to see him over the spate of killings in the state.
Tiseer on the other hand admitted that the legislators however felt slighted by the governor for not giving them desired attention at the time they needed it following the seriousness of the issue that led them to his place.
It would be recalled that rumours had milled the town about how the lawmakers who were at the governor’s residence to draw his attention to increased killings in the state were kept waiting from 10am till about 3pm without even seeing them when he bolted out of the house.
The majority leader while reacting to the rumours in a chat with a cross section of journalists in Makurdi, said that since the security situation in the state worsened and they were not in a position to enforce laws, they (lawmakers) wanted to see the governor and know steps he has taken to manage the situation and the challenges confronting him.
Tiseer rather explained that while he and his colleagues waited to see the governor, they had expected Governor Alia to drop other matters and attend to them because it had to do with the killing of the 28 persons that were recently hacked to death by armed herdsmen in Gwer West Local Government Area.
He however said that the governor was constantly in touch with him (Tiseer) before he left his residence for another engagement, adding also that the House did not invite the governor as speculated in some of the rumoured reports.
“The House did not invite the Governor. But before the House is to go into a sitting, we go into an Executive session and raise burning issues that are of concern and the issue of security came in because Hon Gila, from Gwer-West told us a number of persons were killed; numbering more than 24 and you will recall also that the former Chief of Staff (CoS) to former Governor Ortom (Terwase Orbunde) was attacked and his wife and maid, kidnapped.
“So we were worried that even this particular incident happened in Makurdi; so the whole House, went to see the Governor. We sat and were waiting, but unfortunately, I don’t think he was put on notice and while we were waiting, he came out and left because he had a function.
“But on his way, he called me, that he was aware that we were there and explained that he has given some other persons appointments and believed that our discussion will take some time, so we should give him a little time to come back and meet with us.
“While he was at the function he called again and I gave the phone to the Speaker (Aondona Dajoh) and they spoke. We then waited for some time, but we had another engagement in Abuja and had to catch a flight, because the Speaker was to have a meeting in Abuja by 7pm. So we were of the opinion that since the Speaker was leaving, we would also leave.
“But shortly after we left, he met the Minority Leader, at the gate on his way out, but we couldn’t come back because we had already left because of the travel arrangements earlier made and some of us were to also be in Ibadan.
“Secondly, that he snubbed us is wrong; he did not do that. We have a problem because we hoped that he would have left the other people, because when you see the entire Assembly in your house, he would have left whatever he was doing to attend to us; that’s just the misunderstanding. But that he snubbed us is not true,” the majority leader stressed.