The All Progressives Congress in Benue State constituted its governorship campaign council with the names of three governorship aspirants conspicuously missing.
Former chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, Barnabas Gemade, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mike Aondakaa, SAN, and Professor Terhemba Shija names not on the list.
Although, the trio who participated in the party primary held in May and lost to the suspended Catholic Priest, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, are presently challenging the process in court.
The party State Organising Secretary, James Ornguga, who spoke to journalists on the phone said that the party decided to remove their names from the campaign council due to the case in court.
“The first idea we had was to incorporate all of them that contested against Fr Alia in the campaign council but on a second thought, we looked at the three of them that have taken Alia to court which means that they are not in agreement with his emergence yet.
“So putting them on Alia’s campaign council is not good enough because they might decide to come out and distance themselves from the list and it will make a mockery of what we are doing.
“We still have them as respected party elders. We consider them as our members still but as for this, since they are still contesting the outcome of that primaries that produced the man for whom the campaign council is being formed, we say let’s not include them. So that was the consideration,” Orgunga said.
The party organizing secretary pointed out that other governorship aspirants who participated in the primary and do not have issues were incorporated in the campaign organisation.
He added, “Ordinarily, people who do not have issues like Stephen Lawani and others are part of the team but we singled these three out because they have pending cases in court against the candidate.
“It means they have not accepted the reality that the man won. So it will be an insult to bring them on the team,” he said.
Ornguga said that the party would inaugurate the campaign council on the 14 the October, 2022 and subsequently flag off the campaign immediately.
The campaign council has Senator George Akume as the Chairman, Chief Audu Ogbe as the deputy chairman as well as Paul Biam and Amb. Philip Eche as Secretary and deputy Secretary respectively.
Also are; Rev. Fredrick Ikyaan as Director General, Jacob Obande as deputy director general, and also state party chairman, Austin Agada, Sen. Tilley Gyado, Former deputy governor Stephen Lawani, Patricia Kupchi, Kate Nomhwange among others as members.
