From Scholastica Hir, Makurdi
The past week has been very dramatic in the 10th Benue State House of Assembly. Up until Sunday August 24, 2025, when Hyacinth Dajoh resigned as Speaker, it was not clear if the relationship between the legislature and the executive had deteriorated or not.
During Dajoh’s election, Benue Assembly were allegedly divided into two factions; one part had the loyalists of the Governor, Hyacinth Alia and that of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume.
The Assembly has 31 members and of this number, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has 26 members, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has five while the Labour Party (LP) has one. Among the APC members, it is alleged that while some are loyal to the Governor, others are loyal to the SGF.
In a heated debate and voting that almost took the whole day, the lawmakers loyal to the Governor had the upper hand and Dajoh emerged victorious. However, political pundits noted that the relationship which had remained cordial in the last two years, began to strain due to some of the controversial actions taken by the Dajoh-led Assembly in the course of carrying out their legislative duties.
First was when the House summoned some heads of government agencies to appear before it to explain their involvement in certain transactions within their agencies. Their inability to appear angered the House who then passed a resolution calling on the Governor to suspend them for a period of three to six months.
The resolutions were transmitted to the Governor for immediate action but he failed to act on their requests, a development which prompted the Assembly to step down the screening of commissioner nominees sent to the Assembly by the Governor. In fact, the Assembly insisted that if the said persons were not suspended, it will not honour any correspondence from the Governor.
Several days later, the Governor succumbed to their requests by slamming one month suspension on the affected government officials. They are the Executive Chairman of Otukpo Local Government Area, Maxwell Ogiri, the Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board, (SUBEB), Grace Adagba, and the Executive Secretary of the Benue State Lottery Commission, Michael Uper.
Upon the Governor’s action, the Assembly immediately commenced the screening of the commissioner nominees. Out of the first set of eight, six were screened and confirmed while two others were rejected following series of petition against them. This development also did not go down well with the Governor who was said to have insisted that all the nominees must scale through.
Again, it was gathered that when the second set of the nominees made up of eight were also forwarded to the House by the Governor, the Assembly screened and confirmed only three leaving five out saying they were former government appointees (Commissioners) who failed to honour the Assembly’s invitation in the past. This decision also irked the Governor who by then believed that the Assembly was undermining him.
Before last Sunday’s drama, there were speculations that Dajoh was hobnobbing with those in Akume’s camp and this got into the Governor’s ears which made him very uncomfortable. He lost trust in the speaker and the moves to impeach him began. However, Dajoh got wind of the plan to oust him and at a plenary quickly announced the suspension of the four suspected members said to be championing his removal.
Daily Sun reported that the Assembly suspended the four members from legislative duties for a period of three months, for what it described as an “attempt to cause chaos”. They are Alfred Aondoaver Emberga, representing Makurdi North State Constituency, Shimawua Emmanuel representing Vandeikya; Cyril Ikong Oju II State Constituency, and Abu Umoru James for Apa State Constituency. Dajoh did his to save his job but it was too late because the Governor was bent on ensuring his removal.
Having seen the handwriting on the wall and sensing that his position is no longer safe, on August 24, he decided to bow out by writing a resignation letter and addressed it to the Clerk of the House. The Assembly immediately convened an emergency plenary presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Lami Danladi-Ogenyi, where resignation letter was read and accepted by the members.
Dajoh’s removal created a vacuum that led to the nomination of the suspended lawmaker representing Makurdi North State Constituency, Alfred Emberga. Before his suspension, it was alleged that he had gone to government house inviting some of his colleagues to join forces with him to remove Dajoh for disobeying the governor’s instruction. He was also said to have been instrumental in selling the idea to the governor on the need to have Dajoh removed.
Sources said the Governor who was afraid that Dajoh was beginning to wield enormous powers was said to have bought the idea and immediately supported Emberga to be the next Speaker. During the emergency plenary, the House immediately lifted the suspension on him and three others and thereafter nominated and elected him as their speaker. The development has generated mixed reactions in the state. While many criticise the governor for forcing the speaker to resign, others have hailed him for taking what they describe as a ‘bold step.’
Immediate past State Publicity Secretary in Benue State and currently Governorship aspirant on the platform of the PDP for 2027, Bemgba Iortyom, described Dajoh’s resignation as “a noble and politically smart decision.”
He said “He must have read the handwriting on the wall. From what we gathered, the Governor’s camp had moved against him for certain things which took place within the recent past and if the Governor moved against him in the manner we heard they did, then he stood no chance because it was the same Governor who put him in power. By resigning, he has achieved two things; he has ensured that he retained the privileges of a past or former speaker. Now the privileges are there which he would have lost if they had impeached him.
“Secondly and very profoundly, he has ensured that the channels of future relations with the governor and his successor are intact. So I think it’s a noble decision for him to have resigned. Of course there must have been pressures on him not to step down but to stay and fight but it was politically smart and I applaud him. “
Iortyom described the former speaker as someone who “quite a welcoming” adding “but that’s politics for you, you can’t stay forever and you can’t stop some of these things from happening.”
He said: “Those alleging the Governor has a hand in his resignation may have a point because what other force in the land will be so mighty as to compel the speaker to resign? Only the Governor’s weight carry such powers and looking at the issue of Otukpo and SUBEB Chairman and how the House had to call for their suspension and the governor wasn’t doing anything about it.
“They had to repeat their calls to the Governor and they also had to stand down the screening of the nominees for the post of commissioners that the governor had sent to them, pending when the governor would heed to their calls to suspend the appointees.They had also called for three months suspension for the three heads of agencies which the Governor made only one month, which was a clear indication that things had gone south between the legislature and the executive.
“So those who are speculating that the Governor is actually the one who pressurised the speaker to resign may have a point but that is politics and we do not have hard facts to back that up so we can only leave it at the realm of speculation and of politics.”
Another public analyst, Lawrence Ede viewed the resignation of the former Speaker and the reelection of Emberga as politics played by the Governor and the Assembly members loyal to him.
Ede insisted that what the former Speaker was doing by ensuring that the Governor follows the resolutions of their oversight functions goes to show that there should be separation of powers between executive and the legislature.
He said: “Over times people have tagged the Assembly as a rubber stamp or a stooge of the Governor. Dajoh was trying to prove that it’s not so by compelling the Governor to do the right thing. I wonder why officials of government that claim not to be corrupt will refuse to honour or appear before the House to clarify issues bothering on governance. Therefore it is our belief that the Governor practically forced Dajoh to resign having discovered that he can no longer pocket or control the Assembly the way he wants.
“What is happening in the house is unwarranted and is condemnable. An Assembly should act as a check on the excesses of the Executive. If the Governor has no hand in this, like he contributed 99 percent to the emergence of Dajoh as speaker, why is he not intervening now?”
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