Some elders in the North led by Senator Ahmad Abubakar MoAllahyidi have cautioned a former Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, against reducing the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to Benue’s local political fight.
Chief Ogbeh had led some stakeholders of Idoma extraction to a press conference where they expressed misgivings over the inclusion of a Tiv man, Prof Joseph Utsev, as a ministerial nominee from Benue State, claiming that the action further marginalised the Idoma race in the scheme of things, and accused the SGF, Senator George Akume, of being behind the nomination.
But addressing newsmen at the weekend in Abuja, Senator MoAllahyidi, who led other elders from the North under the aegis of the Arewa New Agenda, said, “Sen Akume’s appointment is a Northern appointment from the North Central Geopolitical Zone and properly located among the Northern Christian block for socio-political expediency.
“An appointment that holds so much for the stability of the Nigerian nation must not be reduced to a Benue State local political fight.
“Sen George Akume represents Northern Nigeria in President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet. More than that, he is an essential political stabilising rod maintaining balance in the Nigerian political equation.
“ANA by this press conference calls on Chief Audu Ogbeh and co-travellers to retract their tirade against the SGF and reign in the young people now disparaging the SGF in the interest of Northern peace and unity, and by extension national cohesion.”
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