Benue North West PDP Asks Non-MINDA Governorship Aspirants To Withdraw From Race.

The North West Senatorial District of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State has advised governorship aspirants,  apart from those of from Masev, Iharev and Nongov parts of the senatorial district of the state known as MINDA to withdraw from the race.

The issue came to the fore when MINDA Elders presented a former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, who is also a governorship aspirant on the platform of the PDP, Terhemen Tarzoor, to the people of Jemgbagh in Gboko.

The party has also disowned all other aspirants in the party that are campaigning for the top job in the state on the platform of the party that are not from MINDA.Sunday Independent gathered that Tarka, Buruku and Gboko Local Government Areas (LGAs), that make up the Jemgbagh extraction in Zone ‘B’ senatorial district of the state, took the decision after its elders and political leaders met in Gboko recently.

The leaders of Jemgbagh had then told elders of other zones as well as other extractions that it would not support their sons that were in the race for the governorship, adding that the only extraction yet to have benefitted from the arrangement is the MINDA people.The implication of their decision is that the former Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, and former Director-General of the campaign organisation of the Benue State governor; Terhemba Shija, among others, have been screened out.

During the presentation of Tarzoor to the people of Jemgbagh, one of the political leaders in the area, Laha Zever, told the gathering that they had made it clear that they would not throw their weight behind governorship aspirants that were not MINDA, even as they urged them to steer clear of them.Also lending his voice to the issue, the PDP chairman of the zone, Amal Bai, said it was only ‘reasonable’ for others to steer clear of the race, but because it is a democratic process, the party would not hinder them.