The war of words between the aides of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, and the governor of Benue state, Fr. Hyacinth Alia spilled into the new year unabated as they continued to throw vitriols at each other, with a viral video causing a fresh outrage.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Benue State, Tersoo Kula, threw the first salvo when he accused Akume “and his team of desperadoes” of trying to distract the governor by using his “minors.”
Kula’s source of angst was a performance by some women at the 50th birthday celebration of one of Senator Akume’s loyalists, Mathias Byuan. He alleged that the song was meant to disparage and distract Governor Alia and that it was sponsored by Senator Akume using his supporters.
“We have learned from history. No sane Benue citizen will be foolishly swayed again. Such antics and vicious concoction by his minors (sic) like one Abua Crucial Yajir can be at most likened to pouring water on the rock. We are not oblivious of the fact that controlling madness is a herculean task, anyway” he said.
But in a riposte, a Special Adviser in the Office of SGF on Public Affairs, Terrence Kuanum cautioned the governor’s spokesman that rather than beat drums of war for his principal, he should imbibe the culture of reconciliation and unity.
Kuanum faulted Kula in his attempt to blame Akume for the actions of “a group of women singing a song somewhere” which he (Kula) deems as uncomplimentary to his principal, the governor.
“Anger, vitriol and bile spewed uncontrollably from CPS Kula against the SGF whom he went as far as labelling a mad man. Such language coming from the office of the governor is disappointing and falls far short of protocols of decorum required at that level” he noted.
While calling Kula to “rethink his stance and imbibe the right levels of emotional intelligence in addressing issues of public concern” the SGF’s aide noted that “the CPS and other hirelings of Governor Alia who have set their perspectives on war against the SGF must come to terms with the fact that the enemy that waits ahead is not SGF Akume, but the hunger, insecurity, unemployment, poverty and disease ravaging the people.
“That is the enemy the Alia administration must fight and defeat with the unprecedentedly huge financial and sundry resources which the federal government under His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made available to state governments across the country” he noted.
Kuanum continued that: “This is the war SGF Akume has charged everyone around him to pray for Governor Hyacinth Alia and his administration to fight and win. As he has been saying both in public and privately to his associates, the SGF means well for the governor whom he sees as a younger brother he worked against all odds to help to power.
“Therefore, CPS Kula and other hawks around Governor Alia must ‘shine their eyes’ to the fact that the drums of war they beat now around their boss constitute a distraction against his performance to meet the expectations of the ‘masses’.
“There is no other distraction against the governor than the crisis merchandising and war mongering going on around him by his hirelings and inner circle.”
