Akume Should Beg God And Benue People For Forgiveness, Lacks Moral Grounds To Accuse Suswam- By Bemgba Iortyom

Senator Akume

Public reactions have trailed Senator George Akume’s call on immediate past governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, to seek God’s forgiveness for what the senator considers to be his (Suswam’s) sins while in office governor.

Many of the people who made their reactions known to this medium maintained that Akume, while he served as governor and now as a serving senator, has committed worse atrocities against the people of the state than any other leader in the state’s history, and as such lacks the moral authority to make such a call on Suswam.

Senator Akume is reported to have made the call yesterday while playing host to APC members from Ushongo LGA and caretaker chairman of the area, Saint Gbilekaa, who visited him at his Makurdi residence to commiserate with him over the death of his brother, late Ter Tarka, Indyer Akume.

Pundits, in their reactions, have been quick to fault Akume, pointing out that he more than Suswam needs God’s forgiveness for being what they describe as the ‘god-father’ of everything that has gone wrong in Benue State from 1999 to date.

According to such contrary opinion, Akume, while serving as governor of the state, superintended over an era which was largely characterized by administrative laziness and a chronic lack of developmental ambition and direction, coupled with excessive executive extravagance, an era which paid little attention to the execution of capital projects, with even the few that were executed adjudged to have been of poor standards.

But a more sinister identity mark of the Akume era, according some, was the level of bloodshed witnessed then, mostly from politically motived killings of hundreds of people believed to have been opponents of the governor.

The major killing fields were known to have been in Akume’s Wannune locality and Adikpo, in Kwande, where the then governor is said to have insisted on planting his cronies in power through the local council elections, in the course of which heavily armed militia and thugs, believed to have been recruited and sponsored by the government, unleashed a reign of terror and mayhem, killing at will and destroying the properties of those who were identified in the opposition in those areas.

It is therefore, highly hypocritical and outrightly ungodly, according to one analyst, for Akume to turn around now and make such remarks about Suswam, as doing so gives the impression that he considers himself above questioning and whatever he does, no matter how heinous, should simply be ignored, while he carries on in the manner of a demi-god who must be worshipped, no matter what he does.

Others point to what they describe as the dark clouds of Akume’s looming and over-bearing influence over the Ortom administration, which they believe the senator would prefer to see moulded in the same image of his own era while he was governor, whereby there will be little attention given to public interest, while executive extravagance and fanfare will be accorded prime attention.

In the view of one analyst, it is Akume who needs God’s forgiveness more than Suswam, and should therefore, proceed, not only to pray fervently, but also tender a public apology to the people of the state for the serial crimes he has committed against them from 1999 to date, particularly those who lost loved ones in the killings in Wannune and Adikpo, if at all his conscience is still alive