THE outgoing year 2011, in Benue could best be described as a year of campaigns, elections and killings.The year took off with intense political activities among the visible political parties 'PDP, ACN, and ANPP, with incumbent Governor, Dr. Gabriel Suswam, Prof. Steve Ugbah, and Prof. Daniel Saror respectively, being arrowheads.Suswam at an early stage thought he would have a free reign to retain his seat, after Jonathan Biam of ANPP kissed the dust, only to receive a shocker with the sudden emergence of Prof. Steve Ugbah, as flag bearer of ACN, whose antics and propaganda machinery were quite ferocious.At that stage, tension soaked the atmosphere, as to who would occupy the seat of power, between Suswam and Ugbah, leaving Saror in the background, even though still in the race.The zeal and desire of the people for a change favoured Saror, not minding that Suswam had recorded successes in some areas.Even though elections have come and gone, 2011was a year of propaganda, blackmail and litigations as most candidates, aggrieved at the results took their matters to the tribunal for redress.In between the lines, pockets of attacks took center stage, with the killing of an ACN strong supporter, Mr. Charles Ayede in Nassarawa State, on his way from Abuja to Makurdi. That development triggered blames and counter blames between the ACN and PDP. Another youth leader of PDP in Konshisha local government, Mr. Terngu was attacked at Tse-Agberagba by suspected thugs and killed in a broad daylight. Again, in Ugba, Logo local government, where both the Governor and Prof. Ugbah hail from, a staunch financier of CAN, one Celestine and his visitor were murdered in cold blood after several threats messages. This killing triggered a reprisal attack targeted at PDP supporters in the area, leaving some people dead and many houses burnt.Then, at the tribunals, it is either Prof. Ugbah, Saror against Suswam or one legislator against another.The dimension metamorphosed into sacking of Speaker of the state House of Assembly in favour of an ACN candidate, with other parties winning and loosing at different levels of their cases up to the Supreme Court.With all these political skirmishes and bloodletting, it became difficult to clearly assess government's real performance in the year under review, even though certain remarkable developments seem to have taken place. Governor Suswam had vowed at several for a, that he will not succumb to distractions and the antics of the opposition.Today, government has managed to complete all on-going projects, initiated the recent employment in the health sector and the Board of Internal Revenue Service, as well as the flag-off of township roads in the three senatorial zones of the state. The construction of the new government house, and some rural electrification projects among others, have in no small measure recorded some positive achievement in the state.However, critics are of the view that the government has not done enough, alleging that some projects are used as conduit pipes for siphoning public funds. They insist that not much has been done, commensurate with the resources of the state.
Click here to read full news..
