Internal wrangling rocks Benue APC, as member calls for suspension of chairman, secretary

A member of the All Progressive Congress in Benue State, Boniface Ortese has called for the suspension of the state chairman and secretary of the party Abba Yaro and Mark Hanmation respectively over the conduct of the party officials which he said led to the poor party performance in the 2019 general elections.

In a complaint letter addressed to the national chairman of the party, a copy made available to our correspondent in Makurdi, Ortese alleged that the two-party officials manipulated the report of the conduct of 2018 state Congress of ward local government and state executives of the party.

According to him, “thus when it was the time of the primaries, the state chairman and the state organizing secretary held their list different from the EXCO that were elected during the 2018 Congress.

“This became the first problem that the party encountered on the journey to the 2019 general elections.

Ortese alleged that the two-party executive doctored the party Exco list which he said was different from persons that were returned as the party Exco during the 2018 congresses.

“This ugly attitude contributed immensely to the failure of the party at the said election.

The party member further alleged that the two-party officials failed to convey party stakeholders meeting to declare the number of persons that bought forms, money generated from sales of forms, the money realized from administrative charges on the sales of forms and expenses incurred as well as the balance remaining in the state party’s treasury.

He also alleged that the duo never declared if there was any external support for the party to prosecute the 2019 general elections and particularly accused the organizing secretary of anti-party activities during the election.

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But in a swift response, both the chairman and the organizing secretary described Ortese as an agent of destabilization.

In a separate interview, the party chairman, Abba Yaro said that the petition was ‘baseless’ since the petitioner was not a financial member of the party.

Yaro said, “Ortese is nobody in the party, he is an agent of destabilization. It is only when you are a financial member of the party that you complain about the party.

“About Congress, it is the people they sent from Abuja that will make a report not me because there was a Congress Committee from Abuja. The people they sent to conduct the congresses came from Abuja and the congresses went on smoothly.

“On the issue of election funds Ortese is one of those who collected money and didn’t deliver, he didn’t go to Guma to vote because he was bought over.

“He is not a card-carrying member of the party because his name is not in our register.

In his own response, the organising secretary, Mark Hanmation said that Ortese did not know the workings of the party because he is not a member of the party.

“The originator of the petition does not know the internal workings of APC and as such, the allegations are baseless, he is not a member of the party so I don’t know where he is getting those allegations from.

On anti-party activities, Hanmation challenged Ortese to present proof that he worked for another party during the 2019 general elections.

“When you make an allegation like that, I hope the petitioner has proof or else whenever am served with his petition, I will reach out to him appropriately.