Allegations of lopsided appointments against SGF based on complaints by North-Central stakeholders – APC Forum

The North-Central All Progressives Congress, APC, Forum, has insisted that its allegations of lopsided appointments against the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Senator George Akume, were based on complaints from stakeholders in the North-Central zone.

Chairman of the North-Central APC Forum, Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, gave the explanation on Tuesday while responding to a statement issued by a spokesperson of the SGF, Terrence Kuanum, which described the Forum’s allegations against Akume as false and misleading.

The North-Central APC Forum had in a statement released after a meeting in Abuja on Sunday, signed by Zazzaga, accused Akume of favouring the Tiv people of Benue State in appointments made by the Office of the SGF.

The Forum also said the impact of Akume’s position as SGF, which he said was zoned to the North-Central by the APC, is not being felt in the region. The APC Forum urged the SGF to carry the entire North-Central along in appointments and stand as the leader of the zone.

Zazzaga warned that the group would mobilize protests and agitation against the SGF if he fails to change his leadership approach by carrying the entire North-Central along.

However, a statement released on Monday by Terrence Kuanum, Special Adviser, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation on Public Affairs, described the North-Central APC Forum as mischief makers who are being sponsored to attack Akume and President Bola Tinubu.

The statement noted that the SGF had attracted many projects to the entire North-Central, adding that he is not responsible for appointments made by the President.

The statement further noted that Zazzaga had, during the 2023 third quarter meeting of the North-Central APC in Jos, expressed the satisfaction of the North-Central APC Forum over what he described as a “purposeful take off of duties” by the SGF since his assumption of office.

Replying, the SGF on Tuesday, the North-Central APC Forum, in a statement released by Zazzaga after a meeting in Abuja, said the allegations of lopsided appointments against Akume were based on complaints by North-Central stakeholders of the APC.

The North-Central APC Forum pointed to a statement issued in August 2023 by a Benue group known as Zone A Peoples Assembly (ZAPA), urging the Tor Tiv, Orchivirigh, Prof James Ayatse, to call the SGF to order over lopsided appointments in favour of his Jemgbagh kinsmen of the Tiv ethnic group.

Zazzaga equally noted that the SGF has derailed from the leadership approach which made the North-Central APC Forum to commend him in 2023.

Parts of the statement read, “The attention of the North-Central All Progressives Congress, APC, Forum, has been drawn to a statement titled ‘SGF AKUME FOCUSED ON THE ASSIGNMENT GIVEN TO HIM BY MR PRESIDENT, NOT DETERRED BY ACTS OF MISCHIEF MAKERS’, which described allegations of lopsided appointments against the SGF as false as misleading.

“For the records, the members of the North-Central APC Forum are not mischief makers, we are bonafide members of the APC who are only interested in the good of the party and the country, and the concerns we raised about the lopsided and imbalanced appointments being made by the SGF were informed by our observations, and mostly by complaints received from stakeholders of the North-Central.

“It is on the record that in August 2023, a group of Benue indigenes known as Zone A Peoples Assembly (ZAPA), through its President, Fannen Mondo, issued a statement urging His Royal Majesty, the Tor Tiv, Orchivirigh, Prof James Ayatse, to call the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, to order over what it noted were lopsided appointments in favor of the people of the Jemgbagh extraction of the Tiv nation in Benue State.

“The group also decried the nomination of a relative of the SGF, Dr. Tyover Dajo of the Akume Dajo family, as Rector of Federal Polytechnic, Wannune in Tarka Local Government Area (LGA) of the state. According to ZAPA, the SGF schemed to have his cousin, Dr. Tyover Dajo, as Rector, Federal Polytechnic, Wannune, to replace Prof Joseph Utsev whom he nominated as minister. Prof Joseph Utsev is currently the Minister of Water Resources.

“Urging the Tor Tiv to call the SGF to order, ZAPA said in the statement: “We want to state clearly that Akume is not showing good leadership and statecraft in the moves he is making in the recent past. It is now crystal clear that he is consciously only concentrating his loyalties to Jemgbagh, the micro-community where he comes from, and not the larger Tiv race or even Benue State where he is the highest appointee of government as it were”.

“The SGF said we commended him in 2023 and we are now turning round to criticize him. If we gave him a passmark in 2023 and after that, he changed his approach to leadership, should we keep silent? Are we not supposed to speak out?

“Yes in 2023 we commended the SGF for showing good leadership but afterwards he changed and started giving appointments to only his people, neglecting other people of the North-Central. As stakeholders of the North-Central, we can’t keep silent in the face of this anomaly.

“If the SGF is saying he is not the one making appointments, that it is Mr President, we ask ‘who then is making the recommendations for those appointments?’

“They should tell us who recommended the Minister of Water Resources, his wife’s kinsman? Even the Minister of Water Resources has been making appointments from the SGF wife’s village. Who recommended the appointments of the MD Shippers’ Council, Executive Director, Federal Housing Authority, Chairman, Governing Council of Federal University of Technology, Owerri, and others, who are all from his village?

“There are a lot of agencies under the Ministry of Water Resources, we are challenging Nigerians to check who and who are being appointed into positions in those agencies.

“We don’t want to go into too much details because what we intended to achieve with our earlier call is for the SGF to change his approach to leadership by carrying the entire North-Central zone along. We want him to unite the North-Central and show leadership, that is what we want.

“We are not blackmailing him as his spokespersons claimed, neither are we sponsored by anybody or any group. We are only voicing our concerns as legitimate stakeholders of the North-Central APC.

But if the SGF refuses to head our call then we will have no other option than to present more evidence to back up our concerns, and we will also embark on protests to demand that he changes his flawed approach to leadership, or resign from the office he is occupying on behalf of the North-Central, failing which we will call for his removal.”