The North-Central All Progressives Congress, APC, Discussion board, has insisted that its allegations of lopsided appointments in opposition to the Secretary to the Authorities of the Federation, SGF, Senator George Akume, have been based mostly on complaints from stakeholders within the North-Central zone.
Chairman of the North-Central APC Discussion board, Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, gave the reason on Tuesday whereas responding to an announcement issued by a spokesperson of the SGF, Terrence Kuanum, which described the Discussion board’s allegations in opposition to Akume as false and deceptive.
The North-Central APC Discussion board had in an announcement launched after a gathering in Abuja on Sunday, signed by Zazzaga, accused Akume of favouring the Tiv folks of Benue State in appointments made by the Workplace of the SGF.
The Discussion board additionally stated the impression of Akume’s place as SGF, which he stated was zoned to the North-Central by the APC, shouldn’t be being felt within the area. The APC Discussion board urged the SGF to hold all the North-Central alongside in appointments and stand because the chief of the zone.
Zazzaga warned that the group would mobilize protests and agitation in opposition to the SGF if he fails to vary his management method by carrying all the North-Central alongside.
Nevertheless, an announcement launched on Monday by Terrence Kuanum, Particular Adviser, Workplace of the Secretary to the Authorities of the Federation on Public Affairs, described the North-Central APC Discussion board as mischief makers who’re being sponsored to assault Akume and President Bola Tinubu.
The assertion famous that the SGF had attracted many tasks to all the North-Central, including that he’s not liable for appointments made by the President.
The assertion additional famous that Zazzaga had, through the 2023 third quarter assembly of the North-Central APC in Jos, expressed the satisfaction of the North-Central APC Discussion board over what he described as a “purposeful take off of duties” by the SGF since his assumption of workplace.
Replying, the SGF on Tuesday, the North-Central APC Discussion board, in an announcement launched by Zazzaga after a gathering in Abuja, stated the allegations of lopsided appointments in opposition to Akume have been based mostly on complaints by North-Central stakeholders of the APC.
The North-Central APC Discussion board pointed to an announcement issued in August 2023 by a Benue group generally known as Zone A Peoples Meeting (ZAPA), urging the Tor Tiv, Orchivirigh, Prof James Ayatse, to name the SGF to order over lopsided appointments in favour of his Jemgbagh kinsmen of the Tiv ethnic group.
Zazzaga equally famous that the SGF has derailed from the management method which made the North-Central APC Discussion board to commend him in 2023.
Components of the assertion learn, “The eye of the North-Central All Progressives Congress, APC, Discussion board, has been drawn to an announcement titled ‘SGF AKUME FOCUSED ON THE ASSIGNMENT GIVEN TO HIM BY MR PRESIDENT, NOT DETERRED BY ACTS OF MISCHIEF MAKERS’, which described allegations of lopsided appointments in opposition to the SGF as false as deceptive.
“For the data, the members of the North-Central APC Discussion board are usually not mischief makers, we’re bonafide members of the APC who’re solely within the good of the occasion and the nation, and the considerations we raised concerning the lopsided and imbalanced appointments being made by the SGF have been knowledgeable by our observations, and principally by complaints acquired from stakeholders of the North-Central.
“It’s on the document that in August 2023, a gaggle of Benue indigenes generally known as Zone A Peoples Meeting (ZAPA), via its President, Fannen Mondo, issued an announcement urging His Royal Majesty, the Tor Tiv, Orchivirigh, Prof James Ayatse, to name the Secretary to the Authorities of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, to order over what it famous have been lopsided appointments in favor of the folks of the Jemgbagh extraction of the Tiv nation in Benue State.
“The group additionally decried the nomination of a relative of the SGF, Dr. Tyover Dajo of the Akume Dajo household, as Rector of Federal Polytechnic, Wannune in Tarka Native Authorities Space (LGA) of the state. In line with ZAPA, the SGF schemed to have his cousin, Dr. Tyover Dajo, as Rector, Federal Polytechnic, Wannune, to exchange Prof Joseph Utsev whom he nominated as minister. Prof Joseph Utsev is presently the Minister of Water Assets.
“Urging the Tor Tiv to name the SGF to order, ZAPA stated within the assertion: “We wish to state clearly that Akume shouldn’t be displaying good management and statecraft within the strikes he’s making within the latest previous. It’s now crystal clear that he’s consciously solely concentrating his loyalties to Jemgbagh, the micro-community the place he comes from, and never the bigger Tiv race and even Benue State the place he’s the very best appointee of presidency because it have been”.
“The SGF stated we counseled him in 2023 and we are actually turning spherical to criticize him. If we gave him a passmark in 2023 and after that, he modified his method to management, ought to we maintain silent? Are we not supposed to talk out?
“Sure in 2023 we counseled the SGF for displaying good management however afterwards he modified and began giving appointments to solely his folks, neglecting different folks of the North-Central. As stakeholders of the North-Central, we will’t maintain silent within the face of this anomaly.
“If the SGF is saying he isn’t the one making appointments, that it’s Mr President, we ask ‘who then is making the suggestions for these appointments?’
“They need to inform us who advisable the Minister of Water Assets, his spouse’s kinsman? Even the Minister of Water Assets has been making appointments from the SGF spouse’s village. Who advisable the appointments of the MD Shippers’ Council, Govt Director, Federal Housing Authority, Chairman, Governing Council of Federal College of Know-how, Owerri, and others, who’re all from his village?
“There are plenty of businesses beneath the Ministry of Water Assets, we’re difficult Nigerians to examine who and who’re being appointed into positions in these businesses.
“We don’t wish to go into an excessive amount of particulars as a result of what we meant to realize with our earlier name is for the SGF to vary his method to management by carrying all the North-Central zone alongside. We would like him to unite the North-Central and present management, that’s what we would like.
“We aren’t blackmailing him as his spokespersons claimed, neither are we sponsored by anyone or any group. We’re solely voicing our considerations as official stakeholders of the North-Central APC.
But when the SGF refuses to move our name then we may have no different possibility than to current extra proof to again up our considerations, and we may even embark on protests to demand that he modifies his flawed method to management, or resign from the workplace he’s occupying on behalf of the North-Central, failing which we’ll name for his removing.”
