Akume Suspended   

MAKURDI: The ongoing face-off between immediate past governor of Benue State, Senator George Akume and his successor, Governor Gabriel Suswam, has assumed another dimension. This followed a one-month suspension clamped on Senator Akume by the State Working Committee, SWC of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.  Akume’s offence is that he allegedly made negative remarks on Suswam and his government. The decision has been communicated to the National Executive Committee of PDP for ratification.

•Senator George Akume, Benue State governor.

According to the Public Relations Officer of the party, Mr. Godwin Ayihe, the party took the action after it had painstakingly examined all the issues raised by Suswam, who had personally written to the party leadership complaining about Akume’s  invectives. Ayihe added that the party listened to the CDs and tapes as well as read newspaper publications which contained the alleged insults on the Governor by Akume and thought it appropriate to invite him to explain his actions.

Three letters, as Ayihe explained, were delivered at Akume’s residence in Abuja but Akume claimed he never saw any letter. In one instance, he told the party that the date of invitation was not convenient to him and had to be rescheduled for Friday 16 July 2010, “yet he adamantly refused to appear before the State Exco”.

Ayihe who expressed disappointment at the Senator’s attitude, posited that the party is supreme, adding that the likes of Sen. Joseph Akaargerger and former National Chairman of PDP, Chief Barnabas Gemade, had appeared before the party to settle differences between them.

“Akume’s action shows that he is undisciplined. We have also noticed that his posters do not carry PDP logo on them. If he wants to leave the party he can do so rather than stay in and try to destroy it. We suspect that he no longer pays allegiance to the party,” the PDP spokesman said.

However, Akume through his Special Assistant, Mrs. Becky Orpin, reacted in a telephone chat with Across Nigeria, that the Senator had been inundated with several calls by his political associates and supporters over what he ( Senator Akume) described as a “sick joke taken too far”.

According to Akume, the SWC lacks the constitutional powers to suspend him.

Going down memory lane, Akume said the action of the SWC is reminiscent of the suspension slammed on Second Republic politician, Chief Kingsley Mbadiwe, of the National Party of Nigeria, NPN, by the Imo State chapter of the party, which he Mbadiwe described as “political rascality”.

He wondered how an area court judge could sanction a Supreme Court justice. Besides being a sitting Senator, Akume maintained that he was a co-founder of the PDP and as the first governor of the ruling party in the state, he created and nurtured the party to the level it is today in the state.

He dismissed the suspension, adding that he was never invited for dialogue by the SWC, before it went ahead to carry out the purported suspension.

– Reported by Ubong George.

Tags:  Governor Gabriel Suswam, Peoples Democratic Party, Public Relations Officer, Senator Akume