By Charity Roberts
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State has accused Governor Hyacinth Alia of running his government under emergency law occasioned by his alleged serial breaches of the Nigeria’s Constitution since his assumption of office on May 29, 2023.
The State Publicity Secretary of PDP, Bemgba Iortyom, in a statement, noted,that “fundamentally to those breaches as 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.”
He explained that 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.
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The Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly, Hyacinth Dajoh, had read to members 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,” he stated.
Iortyom contended the legality in delaying the constitution of Alia’s cabinet outside of the 60 days limit, as required by law, stressing that the governor was running a one-man show administration and embarking on expensive travels in chartered jets and sojourns in five Star Luxury hotels across the country.
Meanwhile, the governor during a media parley at the weekend, said he did not breech any constitutional law as the names of the commissioner nominees had been sent to the Assembly before the mandatory 60 days, adding that it was left for the lawmakers who are on recess to do their job.
Alia, while commenting on the freezing of the state’s accounts, said investigation was ongoing in the MDAs to block leakages of fund and that when it’s completed, the accounts will be unfrozen.
Edited by Dada Ahmed.
