Distinguished members of the press.
Shortly after the recently concluded April, 2011 general elections, adjudged by both local and international observers to be most credible and fair, some politicians of Benue State origin including Wantaregh Paul Unongo and the defeated ACN governorship candidate Prof. Steve Ugbah embarked on a sustained dissemination of information aimed at causing confusion, disaffection, insecurity and casting aspersions on the person and office of the elected Governor of Benue State, Dr. Gabriel Suswam.
This campaign of calumny was also intended to ridicule and desecrate the sanctity of the stool of the paramount ruler of the Tiv nation, High Royal Majesty, Dr. Alfred Akawe Torkula as well as create doubt in the minds of unsuspecting members of the public regarding the integrity and credibility of the April, 2011 polls.
Ladies and Gentlemen, due to the political and security implications of the utterance as to its effect on the people of Kwande and indeed the entirety of Benue State and its negative impact on our core values as a people, we proceed under the aegis of the Kwande People, (KP), a strong and growing coalition of illustrious sons and daughters of Kwande origin cutting the academia, politics, civil service, commerce, opinion leaders and other credible personalities from all works of life to review, comment and indeed to address the press on the following issues:
Tragic Killing of Mr. Charles Ayede and matter arising.
Members of the press, you will recall the tragic and unfortunate killing of the late Charles Ayede, a former staff of National Orientation Agency, NOA, Abuja, and members of the ACN gubernatorial campaign team. This sad event reportedly occurred along Lafia-Makurdi road on the 13th of May, 2011. The late Ayede was until his untimely death, a well respected indigene of Kwande Local Government Area from Ishangev-ya district. He was a distinguished gentleman of amiable personality, known for his generosity and philanthropic disposition.
Mr. Ayede’s tragic death was therefore, shocking, sad and a big loss to the people of Kwande Local Government Area and the entire Benue State.
Regrettably while the people of Kwande were grief stricken over the death of our illustrious son, we were alarmed by the unfortunate and embarrassing reaction of Wantaregh Paul Unongo, also a son of the soil, before now, chairman, PDP caucus, Kwande Local Government Area, and that of his nephew, the defeated ACN candidate, Prof. Steve Ugbah, regarding the killing of Mr. Ayede as a calculated plan.
In two separate press statements, Wantaregh Paul Unongo and Prof. Ugbah made unequivocal statements to the effect that His Excellency, Dr. Gabriel Suswam was responsible for the killing of Mr. Charles Ayede. First, Professor Ugbah in his press statement of 14th April, averred that:
“We know the sponsors of this attack. We also know their objective. The Governor of Benue State, Dr. Gabriel Suswam, will have a difficult task extricating himself from direct blame for the murder of Mr. Charles Ayede. The objective of this murder and the threat the attack directly posed to me as the main contender in the Benue State Governorship Election of April 26th, 2011 which we are disputing, is clear. Governor Gabriel Suswam and his henchmen believe that by eliminating key authentic custodians of the stolen mandate, he will get away with the fraud. They are dead wrong... The whole country knows that the ACN won the just concluded elections in Benue State. Governor Suswam, the PDP and the INEC conspired and continue to manipulate the figures to declare Suswam as the winner. We have consistently appealed for calm by our supporters. Dr. Suswam the Chief Security Officer should be held responsible for any reaction to the murders he has carried out or is planning to carry out. As responsible leaders, we shall continue to appeal to our followers to remain calm. But there is a limit for everything. Enough is enough. I cannot guarantee that I can restrain our teeming supporters any further”.
What is most glaring from the above quoted statement of Professor Steve Ugbah is its recriminatory stance and hostile tone adopted. Such a statement apart from being inimical and prejudicial to police investigation into this killing was couched in a language unexpected of a person aspiring for the office of the governor of Benue State.
Furthermore, in all the issues raised by Professor Ugbah ranging from the question of who was behind the killing of the late Charles Ayede or who won the April 26th Governorship Election in the state, Professor Ugbah alone constitutes the accuser, the prosecutor and judge returning a guilty verdict against HE Governor Suswam over the death of Mr. Ayede and guilty/complacency verdict against INEC and HE Dr. Suswam regarding his loss at the election.
What is even more worrisome is the likelihood of these statements to trigger violence, mayhem, hatred, and animosity in our land. It is on record that a day after the press conference was hold a group of irate ACN supporters in Ishangev-ya, apparently incited by the statement of Professor Ugbah, burnt down houses of PDP members in Ishangev-ya district of Kwande Local Government including the houses of one Torkwase Malu. This incident is already receiving police attention and will not be addressed here.
We however, wish to use this medium to call on the defeated ACN governorship candidate, Professor Steve Ugbah, and his entire supporters and leaders of ACN to allow peace to reign in Kwande and indeed the state. The Kwande people love peace and wish to stress that it is only in an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity that the police can unravel those behind killing of the late Ayede. Professor Ugbah is also enjoined by the Kwande people to take his grievances regarding the conduct of the April 26th 2011 elections to the election tribunal and desist from acts capable of a breach of the peace or act that would portray him as a man in pursuit of self-interest instead of the interest of the people of Benue State he desires to govern.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is a biblical injunction that we all should submit to constituted authority irrespective of how they emerge. Romans chapter 13:1-6 says in part:
“Everyone must submit himself to governing authority, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong.
Professor Ugbah and his supporters should read this scripture and ponder on it so that the will of God will prevail in their lives.
Finally, as a man determined to be Governor of Benue State, common sense demands that he treats such office and its present occupant with some modicum of respect.
Wantaregh Paul Unongo’s Remarks on the April 26th Governorship Election, death of Mr. Charles Ayede and other issues.
Gentlemen of the press.
You will again recall the recent utterances of Wantaregh Paul Unongo regarding the credibility of the April polls, the death of Mr. Charles Ayede, and his verbal attacks on constituted authorities including the person of HE Dr. Gabriel Suswam and His Royal Majesty, Dr. Alfred Akawe Torkula, the paramount ruler of the Tiv nation.
In a press statement dated May 16, 2011, and published in The Alternative newspaper of May 25th, 2011, Wantaregh Paul Unongo, before now a self-confessed chieftain of the PDP stated amongst others that:
“We must not allow young men who have enjoyed life and who are put in power by us. Instead of developing us they have perfected on the goriest, the most barbaric way of killing their own younger people like them who want to seek to also be given a chance to rule. ACN won the fucking election, they won it. They won the election. I’m PDP, we lost. And it’s not a matter of life and death. Those who are killing people they don’t represent all of us that are in PDP... I told ACN members they were making noise rushing around my house telling me that they have won election before they started. I said well, you don’t know what we in PDP will do. I said you go ahead and win the election we shall seize the thing and we’ll go and announce ourselves... I am alive; they have a monkey, a thief, a rogue... is that the action of a Tor Tiv to go and lock yourself up and be thumb printing and dumping papers somewhere? Alfred Torkula is not fit to remain as Tor Tiv at all. Alfred Torkula should hide himself in shame and resign rather than pretending that he is the Tor Tiv. The Tiv people don’t have Tor Tiv now. Alfred Torkula is an active accomplice in all the murderous activities that are going on in Tiv land and I am ashamed of him”
At the risk of sounding repetitive, we make haste to say that the language and tone of Mr. Unongo’s press statement left much to be desired of an elder statement.
Ladies and gentlemen, the prevarifications and indiscretions of Wantaregh Paul Unongo as a Benue politician is well known to all of us. It is on record that during the 1993 general elections Wantaregh was in the fore front of the late M K O Abiola’s Presidential Campaign only to take a detour on the eve of the elections to support Alhaji Bashir Tofa who stood against M K O Abiola.
Indeed Paul Unongo, our son, has applied more than his 30 years of his sojourn in politics to fight every rising star in Tiv land. He fought the late J S Tarka, fought the late Aper Aku, fought the late Rev. Moses Adasu, fought George Akume, fought the late Akperan Orshi, Tor Tiv the third, and he is characteristically fighting Rt. Hon. Gabriel Suswam as well as the fourth Tor Tiv Orchivirgh Dr. Alfred Akawa Torkula. His anti-establishment stance in politics has translated into nothing other than underdevelopment of Kwande Local Government Area.
Without boring further with the many sides and nature of Wantaregh Paul Unongo, it suffices to say that since his entry into partisan politics in the early sixties, Mr. Unongo has distinguished himself as one politician whose word amounts to naught. He is one politician who romances with party A up to midnight only to wake up and marry party B in the early hours of the next morning to the chagrin of every decent person. Indeed when he joined the PDP in 2007 after decades of ignoble reign as an undisputed opposition leader of Benue politics, he was considered as an anti-establishment person camouflaging as a PDP loyalist. Let us recall that Wantaregh Paul Unongo has also in various newspaper interviews including the World Link newspaper of May, 2011, attested to the neutrality and impeccable qualities of the present INEC. His eleventh hour detour to cast aspersion on INEC and the credibility of its polls reflects his inconsistency on critical issues.
We also consider his remarks on the persons of the Tor Tiv, Dr. Alfred Akawa Torkula and HE Dr. Gabriel Suswam most unfortunate.
The Kwande people disagree with the positions because they are absolutely at variance with our respect for the ultimate traditional institution of the Tiv people and ardently respect the success of His Excellency Dr. Gabriel Suswam at the 2011 polls.
He should allow peace to reign in our land and desist from acts capable of fanning the embers of discord and animosity between the PDP and ACN. We recall that election in Kwande LG were peaceful as such Wantaregh should encourage peaceful co-existence rather than utterance capable of generating tension among our people.
It is also our appeal to Wantaregh Unongo to imbibe decorum in his future interactions with the media. We consider expressions such as ‘fucking election, thief, rogue, monkey,’ etc, emanating from Unongo’s press statement unbecoming of an elder statesman.
Finally, Ladies and gentlemen, the Kwande people cannot afford to make Kwande the theatre of rancor and skirmishes. We fervently desire peace, stability and concord among ourselves and the entire people of Benue State and the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We do not hesitate to without doubts to restate our commitment and support to the government of Benue State because we have seen and know the good works of His Excellency the Governor.
If we can without delay mention but a few, the first road completed in the state by Suswam administration is the Adikpo-Ikyogen-Jato-Aka road which leads into Wantaregh’s house.
The comprehensive renovation of General Hospital Adikpo as well as grants given to the local government council to put up a two-storey secretariat also readily comes to mind.
Many of our muddy streets in towns across the state are now tarred while many other projects are being executed.
We wish His Excellency, Dr. Gabriel Suswam, greater success in steering the ship of Benue State in his second governance. In addition the Kwande people wish to call on all leaders of opposition parties and others who lost in the April 2011 general elections to take advantage of the hand of fellowship extended to them by HE Dr. Gabriel Suswam, so that together we can move Benue State to greater height.
Long live Kwande Local Government Area!
Long live Benue State!!
Long live Nigeria!!!
God bless you all!!!!
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