The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the All Progressives Congress, APC and Labour Party, LP, in Benue state have been at loggerheads over the inability of the state Assembly to pass the local government autonomy bill.
While APC and Labour party condemned the Benue State House of Assembly for voting against local government autonomy, they stated that the members have shown they are insensitive to the plight of people at the grassroots.
But the PDP, in response, said the APC should stop pointing accusing fingers at the Titus Uba led state Assembly and rather blame themselves for being responsible for the failure of the bill.
The APC, in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Daniel Ihomun, said the actions of the Assembly members were not only callous but undemocratic and wicked.
The party urged the state Assembly to explain why it jettisoned the golden opportunity to add their voice to the clamour for LG autonomy by voting against it or be ready to face the wrath of the people.
On their party, the Labour Party in Benue, in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Kengkeng Ati, called on the assembly to apologize to the Benue people and also rescind their decision with a unanimous yes to the autonomy bill.
The party said anything short of that, the teeming masses of Benue’s suffering population would have no option but to “ensure the meticulous annihilation of these detrimental forces in the forthcoming ballot of 2023.”
Responding, the Benue PDP, in a statement signed by its
Publicity Secretary, Bemgba Iortyom, lampooned the APC for accusing the Benue State House of Assembly and its Speaker, Titus Uba, of scuttling passage of the LG Autonomy Bill.
He said the APC’s resort to label Uba as an enemy of the people was politically motivated to spoil his chances as the 2023 governorship candidate of the PDP.
“Benue PDP holds that it is APC with majority control of the legislative arms of government, both at the national and state levels, that stands as an obstacle to Local Government Autonomy.
“The minority votes of the PDP controlled states assemblies both in 2018 and 2022 failed in getting the Bill passed into law owing to lack of support from APC controlled states, and the opposition party’s confused local chapter in Benue should stop trying to be clever by half, by seeking to make a scapegoat out of the Benue State House of Assembly.”
The PDP also dismissed the Labour Party’s accusation of Governor Ortom and the state Assembly as a mere amateurish publicity stunt.