Jem GB Ah People’s Forum, JPF, has rejected the ambition of the duo of Senator Titus Zam and Barrister Emmanuel Jime to represent the Benue Northwest Senatorial Zone at the Red Chambers of the National Assembly in 2027.
This was disclosed by the Chairman of the Jemgbah People’s Forum in Lagos, Dr. Nathaniel Asema, Barrister (Mrs) Elizabeth Zamber and Mr. Joshua Dajoh, Secretary and PRO of the advocacy group during a press briefing with Online publishers at the Airport Hotel in Ikeja today.
According to them the people of Jemgbah would not allow either of Dr. Zam Titus and Barrister Emmanuel Jime to represent the ‘good people’ of Benue Northwest Senatorial Zone at the Red Chambers in 2027.
The group which said it is against the ambition of the senator representing Benue Northwest, Senator Titus Zam as a result of his poor representation since he became senator in 2023 also attributed its opposition to Jime’s ambition to zoning arrangement which doesn’t favour any Ihyarev man to be senator after the clan had produced senator twice and also presently occupies the speakership seat.
Reading out the text of the Press Briefing, Dr. Asema who stated that Senator Zam luckily won the last senatorial election against Former Governor Samuel Ortom as a result of Tinubu and Emilokan Mantra noted that the embattled senator’s track records as a former local government chairman and a former head of Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs aren’t anything to write home about.
According to him, Zam’s era as a local government chairman in Gwer West was the poorest since the creation of the local government as he had no single project he executed to develop the place.
“All the records of how he embezzled public funds as a local government chairman are still intact and we have started making the available to the people of the Senatorial Zone for the. To know that he isn’t a worth person that can represent them again” he stressed.
The Jemgbah People’s Forum also told journalists at the Press Conference that it was during Zam’s era as the head of the Bureau that he declared thousands of local government staff as ghost workers without the knowledge of his principal, the then governor, and he was still imputing their names in payment vouchers and embezzled their salaries for about two years .
The group stated that there are records of how Zam was illegally deducting funds of the twenty three local government areas without the knowledge of his principal, noting that he still has a corruption case of over N8Billion with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as a result of how he stole public funds while heading the Bureau.
The Jemgbah People’s Forum pressed further that Senator Titus Zam as a senator for more than two years has not done anything in Zone B with all the Constituency allowances he has taken from the Senate.
The group stated that rather than doing constituency projects, the senator has been building luxurious hotels in his name both in Benue state and Abuja.
“The latest is the multi billion Naira world class hospital he is building in Abuna with the funds he was supposed to use to develop Benue Northwest. And he should explain to the people of the zone where he got over N5billion he is using to build the hospital of not the money he stole as the head of the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs as well as the funds he has been given for Constituency projects ” Asema said.
The group quoted Senator Titus Zam to have said that his main duty is to be loyal to SGF George Akume and nothing more, stressing that he has nothing to do at the Senate in 2027 since he has failed to prioritize the welfare of the people that elected him to represent them at the Upper Chambers.
On Zoning, the group stated that Senator Zam’s clan has produced senator twice so there are reasons he should be stopped from returning to the Senate again so that other clans which has been marginalized in the zoning arrangement can produce a senator for the first time.
Reacting to the ambition of Barrister Emmanuel Jime, the Jemgbah People’s Forum said that it would resist a man who took Speakership which has always been reserved for Jemgbah for his brother from the same Ihyarev, Mr. Berger Alfred to also be a senator from the same clan in 2027.
The group condemned a statement which was repeatedly credited to Jime two weeks ago that he would make sure that his kinsman from Ihyarev, Mr. Berger Alfred remains as Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly in 2027 while he too from the same Ihyarev clan.
Text of the Press Conference reads in parts: “If not for greed, how can an Ihyarev man be a Speaker of the State House of Assembly and another man from the same Ihyarev be senator for Benue Northwest in 2027? Any political party that tries that arrangement will be denied victory as we from Jemgbah will look the way of other political parties that respect zoning.
“If Jemgbah cannot have the senatorial slot of Benue Northwest because it has always produced Speakers of the State House of Assembly, we in Jemgbah will prefer to back another clan that hasn’t produced Senator to represent the Senatorial Zone in 2027. We will sensitize our people to vote against any political party that gives it’s ticket to Barrister Jime because we will not let the Ihyarev have the Speaker and the Senator together in 2027. For the Speaker, Berger can have it since he has a good relationship with Governor Hyacinth Alia but Senate must shift to a clan that hasn’t produced Senator at all.
Jime is a greedy man despite the following positions which Ihyarev people have held since the inception of democracy in 1999. Late Sen. JKN Waku was senator. Hon. Cletus Upaa was a member of the House of Representatives, Makurdi/Guma , Hon. Emmanuel Jime himself was a Member House of Representatives, Makurdi/Guma (2007-2015). He was also a Speaker of the State House of Assembly before the. Hon. Dominic Dickson Tarkighir was Member House of Representatives for Makurdi/Guma before and he is still occupying the seat at present. Hon. Bem Benjamin Mzondu was Member House of Representatives. Also, Stephen Ysav and Dave Ioremba were speakers of the House of Assembly. Presently, Berger Alfred is the speaker. These people are all from Ihyarev clan which has benefitted more than all the clans in Zone B.
“We are going to commence a massive sensitization programe in Zone B when we all visit Benue State in March this year so that our people in Jemgbah will know that the Ihyarev people are greedy and shouldn’t produce senator in 2027 since Barrister Jime has taken their Speakership and still wants to retain it on Ihyarev in 2027”
The Jemgbah People’s Forum pressed further during the Press Conference that Barrister Jime has failed the people of Benue State by not making any positive impacts as a Speaker of the State House of Assembly, as a member of the House of Representatives, as the head of NEPZA and as the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council.
“How can such man aspire for a senatorial seat when he has failed to perform in all the positions he had held in the past. Where are the funds he stole as the Nigerian Shippers Council and NEPZA. His representation at the House of Representatives was the worst in the history of Makurdi/Guma Federal Constituency. There was no single federal presence in just two local governments so how does he want to perform as a senator for six local governments.
“Does Barrister Jime have any investment or a Law Chamber in Benue State. How many people in the state has he employed either in his private investment or in any of the Federal agencies he had worked. Does he even have any personal building in any part of Benue State apart from the rented house he is living” the group stressed.
