Benue State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia has warned Benue electorates against mortgaging their future by selling their permanent voter’s cards (PVCs).
He said, “Everybody should collect and hold onto his or her PVCs, selling your PVCs simply means mortgaging the future of the incoming generation.”
Alia who made his views known during the official flag-off of the Alialization Alia/Ode ’23 gubernatorial campaign commended members of the party for the confidence reposed in him saying, “I will not disappoint you.”
“Today, we decamped people from PDP, Labour Party, APGA and ANPP and the total number of decampees we have is about 2,306 people who have come to join us.”
The minister of special duties and intergovernmental affairs, Senator George Akume warned all the supporters of APC to be peaceful and avoid foul and abusive language that are capable of heating up the polity as they go about canvassing for votes.
The minister also urged all Benue voters to ensure the collection of their PVCs so as to give the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) final burial in Benue.
Akume called on all and sundry to vote the party’s candidates from bottom to top, adding that the governorship candidate of the party, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Iornem Alia needs support from the federal government to develop the state.
He recalled when the state voted massively for the Abiola/Kingibe, another Muslim-Muslim ticket stressing that what the people want is who has the capacity to drive the nation to the Promised Land.
Also, the APC national chairman Abdullahi Adamu charged the party’s leadership to ensure the recovery of APC’s stolen mandate from the PDP during the forthcoming elections.
Adamu who was represented by the zonal chairman Bawa Muazu said with what he has seen in Benue, the APC is going to reclaim its mandate which was stolen in 2015.
“In 2015 somebody came and we gave him our mandate after winning election he ran away, we are claiming back our mandate this 2023, Benue has made a wise decision for choosing Alia who is going to rekindle the hope of Benue people and reunite all citizens through good governance,” he said.
The APC national chairman handed over to all contestants the flag of the party and asked them to canvass for support in all the nooks and crannies of the state.
In his welcome address, the director-general Alia/Ode Campaign Organisation Rev. Fredrick Ikyaan said, the flag -off officially marks the beginning of electioneering campaigns geared towards the emancipation of the people from the shackles of poverty and confusion characterised by deprivation, ineptitude and negligence.
In his address, the deputy governor of Kogi State, Edward Onoja, who spoke on behalf of the APC North Central governors, called on the party members to engage in robust campaigns across the state. Onoja appealed to Benue voters to shun voter apathy, vote buying and selling of PVCs as well as violence before, during and after the elections.
