Vice-President, Kashim Shettima, has pleaded with Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, to seek peace in the North Central state.
The Vice President made the appeal on Tuesday in his remarks at the PGF-Renewed Hope Ambassadors Strategic Summit, held at the State House Conference Hall in Abuja.
Checks revealed that both Governor Alia and the SGF have been embroiled in a cold war for the control of party structures in the North Central state.
At the recent ward congresses of the APC in Benue, both Governor Alia and Senator Akume conducted parallel ward congresses and announced ward executives in the 33 local government areas in the state.
While Comrade Austin Agada-led faction loyal to the SGF claimed that its executives have been affirmed for another tenure of four years, the Chief Benjamin Omale-led faction loyal to Governor Alia announced that new ward executives emerged through a consensus arrangement.
Shettima, however, appealed to both chieftains of the party to seek peace, submitting that Benue deserves development.
He said: “I want to use this forum to make a special appeal to His Excellency Senator George Akume and His Excellency Governor Hyacinth Alia to mend fences and work effectively.
“Senator Akume, apart from Dr. Abdullahi Ganduji, Senator Akume, is the longest serving public servant in the current dispensation. He’s in his seventies. He started work in Benue State government house. He was the director of protocol.
“He was a permanent secretary. He was a governor for eight years, a senator for 16 years, a minister for four years, and now the secretary to the government of the federation. You have seen it all.
“You are an elder statement, reach out to our junior brother. Let’s build Benue together. Benue deserves peace. Benue deserves development.
“What binds us together, as I have always said, supersedes whatever that divides us. The trajectory of global growth is facing Africa, and Nigeria will make or mar that transition.
“Nigeria is greater than all of us. And as Martin Luther King rightly said, we either learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. And we are not a nation of fools. We are a nation of very intelligent, very smart people that know their onions.
“Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your kind attention. And God bless the Republic of Nigeria.”