The media consultant to the 2027 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Benue State, Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, SAN, Dr Terver Akase, has dismissed as “reckless concoction” and “desperate political fabrication” a report alleging that the former Attorney-General of the Federation has sold the party’s governorship ticket for N10 billion.
Akase, in a statement issued yesterday, accused a group loyal to Governor Hyacinth Alia, identified as ‘Alia Aliamedianetwork’, of fabricating the report and circulating it on the Alia TV page in an attempt to undermine Aondoakaa’s candidacy ahead of the 2027 governorship election.
He described the publication as another indication that the governor’s camp was increasingly unsettled by Aondoakaa’s emergence as the PDP candidate, stressing that the report failed to provide any evidence to substantiate its claims.
According to him, the report contained no document, bank transaction, recording, named witness, verifiable venue or date of the alleged secret meeting where the purported transaction took place.
Akase said it was particularly curious that the authors claimed to know details of alleged payments in United States dollars, contracts purportedly worth N5 billion every quarter, as well as private conversations involving former Governor Samuel Ortom and Senator George Akume, without providing evidence.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, SAN, remains the duly nominated governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Benue State for the 2027 election. He has not sold, surrendered, transferred or negotiated away his mandate to anybody. And he will never do so,” he said.
He argued that a governorship ticket could not simply be treated as a commodity that could be sold or transferred, noting that nomination and substitution of candidates were subject to laws, party procedures, constitutional requirements and electoral processes.
The media consultant also accused the governor’s media handlers of being overly preoccupied with Aondoakaa, questioning why they would continue to publish reports about alleged replacement candidates if, as they claimed, the PDP candidate posed no serious political threat to Governor Alia.
He said the latest publication followed what he described as a recurring pattern of announcing purported replacements for Aondoakaa, recalling that names such as Pius Akutah and Terwase Orbunde had previously been mentioned.
According to Akase, the pattern involved inventing alleged secret meetings, linking them to prominent political figures, announcing imaginary replacements and attaching huge financial figures to the stories in an attempt to make them sensational.
He maintained that the alleged campaign of rumours, defections, withdrawals and replacement candidates had instead demonstrated that Aondoakaa was being taken seriously by the governor’s camp ahead of the election.
Akase urged the people of Benue State to focus on issues concerning governance, arguing that the 2027 election should be determined by competing records, ideas and competence rather than what he described as “fairy tales about bags of dollars and imaginary political transactions.”
He challenged the Alia administration to account for its stewardship, particularly its performance in security, agriculture, infrastructure, employment, education, healthcare and the welfare of residents.
“If Governor Alia’s media handlers believe their principal deserves another four years, they should tell Benue people what he has done with the enormous resources available to his administration, the latest being the N3 trillion FAAC the three tiers of government shared only yesterday,” he said.
Akase reaffirmed that Aondoakaa remained in the governorship race on the platform of the PDP, insisting that no amount of propaganda would alter the party’s nomination.
He urged the Alia camp to prepare for a direct electoral contest rather than continue with what he described as fabricated stories about possible replacements for the PDP candidate.
“2027 will not be decided by fabricated Facebook stories. Benue people will decide,” Akase said.
Ends
