The immediate past Governor of Benue State and lead­er of the Peoples Demo­cratic Party (PDP) in the state, Gabriel Suswam, has warned the senator repre­senting Benue North-West Senatorial District (zone ‘B’), George Akume, to stop meddling into issues that do not concern him but rather concentrate on his legislative business.
Suswam gave the warn­ing while addressing party faithfuls at the party secre­tariat recently.
The former governor of the state, who was react­ing to uncomplimentary statements on his person credited to his predeces­sor regarding application of bailout funds in the state by Governor Samu­el Ortom, expressed sur­prise why Senator Akume suddenly became the gov­ernor’s spokesperson.
Suswam boasted that having served the state for eight years, it was incum­bent on him to expose the ills committed by the pre­sent administration con­cerning application of bail­out funds.
“We didn’t vote Akume as governor, we voted him as senator and so we expect that what should have been his preoccupation is legis­lation at the National As­sembly.
“Is he one of those who participated in embez­zling the bailout funds?” he asked rhetorically.
Lamenting the intolera­ble style of the Gov Ortom-led APC government in the state, the former gover­nor told his supporters that throughout his eight years as the Chief Servant in the state, he did not deny the then opposition party which is today the ruling party access to any public places in the state to hold any of their political activ­ities. He disclosed that all their requests to use any of the public squares both in Makurdi and other towns such as Gboko and Otuk­po were out rightly turned down by the government.
He said henceforth, he would not take any in­sult from the senator as, according to him, he had served as a member of the National Assembly for eight years before be­coming governor of the state for another eight years which he main­tained, earned him the sta­tus of a statesman.
Suswam disclosed that as a former two-term governor, his predecessor, Senator Akume has no moral justification what­soever to continually sub­ject him to untold denigra­tion.