Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, has debunked reports claiming that he was excluded from the list of cleared aspirants for the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary holding today.
The governor maintained that he was properly screened and cleared by the APC governorship screening committee led by the party’s National Chairman, Nentawe Yilwatda.
Alia insisted that his name remains on the official list of approved aspirants, dismissing circulating reports suggesting otherwise.
Reacting to the development in a Facebook post on Thursday morning, the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Sir Tersoo Kula, described the reports as false and urged party members to ignore what he termed misinformation.
Kula said APC members should instead mobilise to their ward centres and participate fully in the party’s direct primary election.
According to him, “Today is the favourite one Gov. Alia’s Day!! The Committee that screened sitting Governors of the APC was headed by the national chairman of the party, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda.”
He added that the committee responsible for screening other aspirants was separate from the one that handled sitting governors, insisting that it had no authority to release the list concerning Governor Alia.
“The Committee that screened ‘the others’ was different. As such, this committee of ‘the others’ cannot publish the list of a more privileged committee that presided over the screening of sitting governors,” he stated.
Kula further praised the governor, describing him as a “star man” and revealing that the APC national chairman referred to Alia as his “favourite governor” during the screening exercise.
“Fr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia is a star man. During the exercise, the National Chairman referred to him rightly as his favourite governor. Today is the day. Let us go to our various ward centres and enforce consolidation. With Alia, Benue shall be great again,” he added.
The clarification comes amid confusion generated by conflicting lists of cleared APC governorship aspirants circulating online, with one version omitting Governor Alia’s name while another included him alongside four other contenders.
