The State Of Anarchy, Suppression And Rape Of Democracy In Benue State

Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam, who enjoys a close personal relationship with President Jonathan and Senate President David Mark, has drawn up a list of enemies he plans to resolutely deal with once and for all, and he has enlisted the Inspector General of Police Hafiz Ringim to help in hounding the opposition throughout his state.

Suswam’s rage was recently provoked by an open letter written to President Jonathan by a group of eminent Benue elders asking him to save the state. In the caustic and stinging letter of rebuke (reproduced below), the group, calling itself  “Concerned Benue Elders”, leveled grave allegations against governor Suswam bordering on gross human rights violations and state sponsored terror. They allege that Mr. Suswam denied the citizens of Benue their right to choose their own government by conniving with INEC’s Benue Resident Electoral Commissioner, Alhaji Nasir Ayilara, to massively rig the gubernatorial elections. They also allege that governor Suswam orchestrated the death threats against the first Chairman of the Benue State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal Hon. Justice Daisy Okocha, as well as masterminding the campaign of threats and harassment that saw the second governorship election tribunal chaired by Justice M. Ladan flee the state for personal safety. However, the most serious charge leveled against Governor Suswam, alleges that he has perfected plans to use his office to sponsor a reign of terror throughout the state so as to induce a state of emergency if the Nigerian judicial system eventually determines that he lost the elections.

The group who wrote the letter is galvanized by Hon. Justice A. Utsaha, Benue state’s first President of the Customary Court of Appeal, and frontline ACN stalwart. Justice Utsaha has repeatedly called on President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene in the crisis in Benue in very clear terms, going so far as to allege that President Jonathan is not unaware of the deteriorating state of affairs in Benue. In directly calling upon President Jonathan to use his powers to address the situation in Benue, Justice Utsaha said, “President Jonathan knows the truth about what is happening in Benue state but would rather support his political party. We have written to the IGP but he will turn around and arrest our members. He should in the name of God, do the proper thing and save the people of Benue sate from this mayhem".

As the most important lynchpin for President Jonathan’s path to the presidency, Governor Gabriel Suswam is easily one of Nigeria’s most powerful, if not the most powerful, governor. Because of the political influence he wields throughout the Middle Belt, Governor Suswam remains the president’s most dependable Benue confidant even ahead of Senate President David Mark. Indeed, President Goodluck Jonathan seldom travels abroad without Governor Suswam at his side. Such is the measure of his influence.

With President Goodluck Jonathan’s blessing, and Senate President David Mark’s allegiance, daring to confront Governor Suswam is a high stakes gamble as he methodically unleashes all instruments of state coercion at his disposal to silence the opposition.

Soon, Justice Utsaha and his fellow elders may find out that they have bitten off more than they can chew. Already President Jonathan’s erstwhile Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, has acted swiftly to effect the arrest of Justice Utsaha, Wantaregh Paul Unongo, an uncle to the man widely believed to have won the Benue gubernatorial election, Professor Steve Ugbah, and several other signatories to the letter of rebuke the Benue elders sent to President Jonathan. According to IGP Ringim Justice Ustaha and his fellow elders are being charged with “Declaration of War by the Action Congress of Nigeria.” (The IGP’s letter is reproduced below).

As President Jonathan continues to permit instruments of national security to be used by his most powerful surrogate to hound democratic expression in Benue state into extinction, we may expect similarly ambitious PDP governors across Nigeria to replay the Suswam system of suppression in their own states. The question on the mind of many Nigerians is whether or not President Jonathan believes that every Nigerian has a right to live free of state coercion, or whether this right is guaranteed only to members of his political party who voice no dissenting opinions.

 
Governor Suswam pops champagne at birthday bash for Patience Jonathan
 
Concerned Benue Elders Letter to President Goodluck Jonathan

NO. 5 PADRO PLO STREET, JUDGES QUARTERS, GBOKO ROAD, MAKURDI
SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan,
President,
Federal Republic of Nigeria
Aso Rock Villa,
Abuja.

The State Of Anarchy, Suppression And Rape Of Democracy In Benue State

Nigeria has had a very tortuous and painful journey in her quest for nationhood, democracy and good governance. We have in the trail of our short history a sad and needless civil war, mass political upheavals, several military interregna and sundry political misadventures and crises. The stubborn trait of electoral manipulations has consistently undermined our quest for democracy. This explains why Nigerians may be enamoured with the efforts made by Professor Atahiru Jega to discount the huge deficit posted by the country in terms of diminished electoral integrity and the collateral negative image of Nigeria in the global mindscape. The 2007 elections were a monumental debacle and considered the lowest point in Nigeria’s unrelenting history of electoral racketeering.

In Benue State however, Governor Gabriel Suswam is making the Professor Maurice Iwu chaired 2007 electoral farce look like an epitome of excellence. The 2011 elections were so clumsily and recklessly rigged while the Resident Electoral Commissioner Alhaji Nasir Ayilara looked the other way. It is difficult for the sacked REC to deny the popular opinion that he was heavily compromised. Now the judges of the Election Tribunals and Appeal Court on Benue State cases are spinning the most bizarre and mysterious judgments in Nigerian legal history. Many believe that this is directly a result of the corrupting influences of Mr. Gabriel Suswam. The muddled judgments hastily delivered by the Appeal Court and the Election Tribunal scorn the entire judiciary and make a travesty of our democracy. Or else, by what influences have the Appeal Court judges machinated such strange and intriguing judgments?

Benue State stands out as an epic example of the recent declaration by the President of the Nigerian Bar Association Mr. Joseph Daudu (SAN), that justice is being sacrificed on the altar of monetary and material benefits in the election tribunals. Were it not for the grace of the Almighty God who knows the end from the beginning and decided that governorship electoral cases no longer terminate at the Appeal Court level, the reckless action of these tribunals would have been very ominous indeed for the country.

Graciously, the Supreme Court will have the last say on this matter. All that the people of Benue State look forward to is justice.

A deconstruction of the Benue scenario shows that Mr. Gabriel Suswam was long rejected by the Benue people who were only waiting for 2011 to happen. It is well known to all observers including official polls prior to the elections that “Right Honourable Dr” Gabriel Suswam had lost his deposit. Faced with that grim reality Mr. Gabriel Suswam devised several techniques to rig the elections including the use of force, mass thumbing of ballot papers and reckless stuffing of ballot boxes; and the use of money to buy the conscience of the electorate whom he worked hard to impoverish for four years.

They naturally rebuffed him. Mr. Gabriel Suswam in all good conscience knows that any fair hearing at the tribunal will throw him out of Government House and hence his determination to compromise the justices of the tribunal either through intimidation or corrupt inducement.

It is curious that the first Chairman of the Benue State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal Hon. Justice Daisy Okocha had to flee Benue State for her personal safety. The next tribunal suddenly suspended proceedings and adjourned indefinitely for what it simply termed “Security Reasons”. It is clear that these were honourable ‘men’ that did not sway to the venal overtures of Mr. Gabriel Suswam and so were being hounded.
The judiciary was the last institution standing when the entire electoral system was brought to shambles by the Maurice Iwu led INEC; now Mr. Gabriel Suswam and his likes are determined to blight the modicum of confidence that remained the last hope of Nigerians in the government. Due to Mr. Gabriel Suswam’s stubborn desperation to hang on to power, despite his summary rejection by the people of the state, he has taken off the façade of his gubernatorial persona and is now behaving like an outlaw deploying the most bizarre means and methods to perpetuate himself in power.

We have it on authority that Mr. Gabriel Suswam has perfected a plan to cause mayhem in the state using his retinue of thugs if he comes face to face with a verdict that will throw him out of office. This he hopes to do in order to create a state of emergency in the state thereby, in his thinking, making it impossible for Professor Steve Ugbah the popular choice of the people to take over his mandate. Mr. Suswam is a bad case even for the PDP. This is apart from the embarrassing situation of possessing forged secondary school certificates and cleverly avoiding including any document in the form he completed at the INEC to stand elections. It is a sad commentary on Mr. Gabriel Suswam’s personality but the reality must be elicited that, his penchant for dishonesty and corruption is obsessive. Otherwise, what is so difficult about producing a secondary school certificate, for one who has been to the university and now brandishes a doctoral degree? He is in all ramifications a monumental liability even to his party. This is evident from the fact that he caused the diminishing fortunes of the PDP in Benue State. Mr. Gabriel Suswam’s muzzling activities and his compulsive knack for dishonesty and corruption led the masses to widely and vehemently spurn the party. This is how PDP candidates, especially those Mr. Gabriel Suswam foisted on the people were roundly rejected.

It is not difficult to understand the mass movement that spontaneously emerged against the second term bid of Mr. Gabriel Suswam. It is unfortunate that, although a political neophyte, Mr. Gabriel Suswam took upon himself more than his wisdom could carry him. He abandoned the political eldership of the party that brought him to power. Then he began to undo every politician that had clout in the party especially among his fellow Tiv politicians, in the belief that it is by destroying others that he will emerge as a political icon. This is why most of the PDP members left en mass to join the ACN. But, if Mr. Suswam’s politics is destructive, his governance style is most disastrous. He went beyond the pale by treating the Benue people like conquered natives. He completely alienated himself from the people, carrying on as an absentee Governor for most of the four years between 2007 and 2011. He philandered with the opportunity provided by the high office of Governor to make a difference. He naturally posted huge deficits in terms of gross under achievement. Under Gabriel Suswam’s watch cruel poverty took the center stage as massive unemployment invaded the economic space. Benue State has one of the highest unemployment figures in the country. The state was the only state in Nigeria that did not draw from the MDG funds until only last year. Counterpart funding was not provided for the Universal Basic Education, and the Fadama 111. Consistently the capital budget performance in the state hovered below 15% in those four years. Budgets for the HIV/Aids scourge were never drawn down leading to the open lamentation of the head of the state’s HIV/AIDS Agency (BENSACA) to have declared openly to the House Assembly monitoring team that a kobo was not accessed by her office. Considering the helpless situation of the victims of the scourge, the remiss of the governor should tell any one of his concern for his people.

The factories built by his predecessor His Excellency Dr George Akume which include a cassava flour mill, a fertilizer blending plant, tomato/mango processing factory (with state of the art equipment supplied by Rossi and Catelli of Italy worth over 10 million dollar and fully paid for), a citrus processing factory (state of the art equipment supplied by Elpo of Italy fully paid for), remained at the stage where they were left. The Benue State University Teaching Hospital which was over 85% completed has remained at that stage ever since then. The Greater Makurdi Water Scheme which was about 70% completed by 2007, had the contract re awarded afresh at heavily inflated rates and has yet remained uncompleted to date, not to talk of the reticulation of pipes which is yet to be designed. Meanwhile the state received in the last four years from the Federation Account and the Excess Crude Account about twice what was gotten for all the eight years between 1999 to 2007. Despite these, scandalous local debts from commercial banks have been collected including a 13 billion naira bond that remains shrouded in secrecy.

Your Excellency, Mr. President must have been embarrassed, when you visited the state in 2011 and all you were made to commission was a renovated primary school at Wurukum in Makurdi. In the face of these monumental underperforming records it is not difficult to see why the people of Benue State massively threw their support behind Professor Steve Ugbah when he emerged to contest the Governorship elections on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria ACN. A man of immense impeccable credentials and political pedigree the Benue people knew it was worth investing their trust and confidence in his solid personage. As appropriately described by the media the swirl of the ACN in Benue State was a ‘tsunami’. Mr. Suswam himself openly confessed to a gathering of pastors prior to the elections that the ACN hurricane was a phenomenon he had never witnessed before in his life. He, probably reflecting his world view, attributed it to invasion from spiritual powers. But we always knew ‘it was the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our sight’. Even babes shouting ‘chanji’.

The people of Benue state have great confidence in the Supreme Court to adjudicate fairly the governorship elections won overwhelmingly by Professor Steve Ugbah of ACN and rigged by Mr. Gabriel Suswam. The people are committed to maintain the peace with this hope held up, despite the unrelenting intimidation and blackmail by Mr. Gabriel Suswam. It is tragic that Governor Gabriel Suswam has chosen to allow his unbridled greed for power to compound the problems facing the nation and Mr. President at this most inauspicious moment in our history.

The blitz of problems ranging from the Boko Haram bombings, the internecine religious and ethnic killings, the unrest in the Niger Delta, persisting insecurity of life and property, to kidnappings are daunting enough.

We wish to use this opportunity to advise and warn that the people of Benue State will not take it lying down if they are denied justice by the judiciary or otherwise shut out from seeking redress through these constitutional avenues by corrupt means. We need to remind Your Excellency, Mr. President, that those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable. Nobody should assume that the Arab spring in Africa and the Middle East cannot replicate itself in our dear country.

Long Live Mr. President
Long Live Benue State
Long Live Nigeria

Signed:
1.    Wantaregh Iorpuu Unongo
2.    Prof Daniel Saaor
3.    Kpamor J T Orkar
4.    Chief JKN Waku
5.    Hon Justice A. B Utsaha
6.    Chief Mrs Elizabeth Ivase
7.    Chief Haa Orpin
8.    Chief Aondoakaa Orga
9.    Hon Abba Yaro
10.    Chief NingaBiam
11.    Prof David Iornem
12.    Chief Godwin Owulo
13.    Chief Solomon Ada Ngbede
14.    Hon Jerome Tor Shimbe
15.    Ambassador Mike Gbasha
16.    Hon Rebecca Apezan
17.    Chief Andre TerSuugh
18.    Prof Ortyoyande
19.    Dr Fidelis Anweh
20.    Maj Gen India Garba
21.    Mr. Christopher Tarka
22.    Brig Gen M. AIndiorhwer
23.    Col Edwin Jando
24.    Hon Engr Benson Abounu
25.    Chief J. I. Ichaver
26.    Chief Charles Mary Avul
27.    Hon Terfa Atii
28.    Hon Onov Tyuulugh
29.    Hon Targema Takema
30.    Col Bendega
31.    Chief Emmanuel Viashima
32.    Chief Andrew Azege
33.    Chief Mrs Margaret Iorember
34.    Barr AgbaInjo
35.    Hon Mtser Kyaa
36.    Engr. Nyianshima Bur
37.    Major Attah
38.    Alhaji Mohammed Gombe