Majority Leader, Benue State House of Assembly, Saater Tiseer, has said that there was no time the state governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, snubbed members of the assembly.
Tiseer further said that neither was there a time when the assembly members also shunned the governor.
The majority leader spoke to journalists on Sunday on the allegations that the state House of Assembly led by the Speaker, Aondona Dajoh, who went to see the governor over the spate of killings in the state was abandoned by the governor.
Narrating what transpired between the state lawmakers and the governor, Tiseer however said that they had gone to visit the governor in view of the insecurity in the state.
It was gathered that the lawmakers who were at the governor’s residence to draw his attention to the increased killings in the state were kept waiting from 10 am till about 3 pm and ended up not seeing the governor.
The majority leader argued that since the security situation in the state had worsened and they were not in a position to enforce laws, the lawmakers wanted to see the governor and know the steps he was taking to manage the situation and the challenges confronting him.
He however stated that while he and his colleagues waited to see the governor, they had expected the governor to drop other matters and attend to them because it had to do with the security challenges in the state.
Tiseer said, “The House did not invite the Governor. But before the House could go sit, we went into an executive session and raised burning issues that were of concern and the issue of security came in.
” The lawmaker representing Gwer West LGA, Hon Gila, told us a number of persons were killed; numbering more than 24 and you will recall also that the former Chief of Staff to former Governor Ortom (Terwase Orbunde) was attacked and his wife and maid, kidnapped.
“So we were worried that even this latter 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 had given some other person appointments and believed that our discussion would 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 7 pm. 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.
“Second, that he snubbed us is wrong; he did not do that. We had 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 that the legislature was more worried that even though rains were about to commence, in full swing, the activities of herdsmen had kept farmers away from the farms, which was an invitation to hunger.
“But the worry is that we are concerned about the insecurity in the state; we are concerned that our people are being killed; we are concerned that the rains have come back and we are concerned that you can still see Fulani and their cattle around while our people are expected to farm.”
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