The police referred to an earlier letter it received from Governor Hyacinth Alia banning all forms of political meetings and gatherings in the state.
Operatives of the Benue State Police Command on Friday besieged the state secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and prevented all the members of the party from gaining access into the secretariat to hold a stakeholders’ meeting.
The police took over the party’s secretariat early in the morning and blocked the entrance with their vehicles alongside other security operatives drawn from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Livestock Guards.
The security operatives blocked all the roads leading to the APC secretariat with operational vehicles.
According to Daily Trust, it was gathered that earlier, the APC leadership in the state under Chairmanship of Austin Agada, had announced a meeting of the party’s select stakeholders and the newly appointed Federal Housing Authority (FHA), Executive Director of Housing, Finance and Accounts, Dr. Matthias Byuan, to hold on Friday at the party secretariat in Makurdi, the state capital.
However, the state police command in a letter signed by a Deputy Commissioner of Police, Samuel Gimba for the Commissioner of Police and addressed to the Benue APC chairman, advised that the meeting be called off.
The police referred to an earlier letter it received from Governor Hyacinth Alia banning all forms of political meetings and gatherings in the state.
Governor Hyacinth Alla, in the letter dated February 27, 2024, through his Chief of Staff, Paul Biam, reportedly banned all forms of political meetings and gatherings in the state on account of the fragile security situation in the state.
The letter said, “I write to inform you that His Excellency Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alla has banned all political gatherings in any form, be it inter or intra party or groups in Benue State till further notice.
“This has become necessary following intelligence on the volatility of the security atmosphere in the state.”
This is as the internal crisis rocking the APC in the state recently reached its peak following the emergence of Benjamin Omakolo, as the acting state chairman of the party after a ward executives of the party passed a vote of no confidence on the Agada leadership.
However, the national secretariat of the APC insisted that Agada remained the substantial chairman of the party in the state.