The senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Benue South, Comrade Dan Onjeh has condemned alleged calls by some Idoma elders for the sack of Chief of Defence Intelligence, AVM Monday Morgan.
Onjeh who reacted to the call Wednesday afternoon told DAILY POST that it was meaningless and unreasonable for an Idoma man to call for his own brother’s sack for no just cause, adding that it was wrong for people to politicize virtually everything. He alleged that former Senate President, David Mark was the architect of the call and that no known Idoma elders are known by the names in the statement issued by the elders.
He further expressed his disappointment in a follow up statement forwarded to DAILY POST, stating that the news item carried by online platforms on Tuesday, December 29th, 2015 was a testimony to the desperation of embattled former Senate President, David Mark.
It would be recalled that the Idoma Elders had in a statement called for the sack of Morgan, an Idoma, accusing him of using Buhari’s name to compel the Idoma people to join the APC if they want him to retain his job..
But Onjeh termed the elders faceless, saying, ‘’The so-called Elders, Sule Omaji Audu and Omale Jonah Omale are faceless individuals, unknown to any Idoma. Can anyone, no matter how biased talk of Idoma Elders without the likes of Chief Audu Ogbeh, General Lawrence Onoja, Mike Onoja, Benson Abounu, Armstrong Adejoh, Adoyi Ojogbaneh, Stephen Lawani, etc.? This is the height of David Mark’s illusion/hallucination.
‘’David Mark, like a drowning man has been whipping up sentiments and playing dangerous personal destruction politics (P.D.P.) since the commencement of his campaign following the nullification of his election by the Court of Appeal. He first of all wanted to set the Idoma people against me, his opponent and against our Tiv neighbors by claiming the Tivs are sponsoring me to control Idoma land. That gambit having woefully failed as the Idoma people are very sophisticated politically, he has now clung to another branch of accusation by linking the Chief of Defence Intelligence AVM Monday Morgan to my aspiration. What dangerous, diabolical deception!
‘’Mark’s signature is so evident in the so-called Idoma Elders statement against AVM Morgan because of the allusion to their sour relationship over Mark’s failure to make Morgan the Chief of Air Staff while he was in office. The ridiculous assertion allegedly by Mark that Morgan was not the most senior or most qualified officer is simply the admission of guilt by someone who never assisted his people no matter how qualified. It is a specious and silly assertion. To draw AVM Morgan in an electoral contest is the height of moral perfidy by Senator Mark. The concluding paragraph in the news item on the so-called Idoma Elders proves Mark’s desperation: “A window of opportunity came for Morgan to hit Mark when the appeal tribunal sitting in Makurdi, Benue state, nullified the senatorial election of Mark and ordered a rerun”.
‘’AVM Morgan is an officer and a gentleman who like his counterparts in the other services was appointed solely on merit, according to the President, who had never met any of them before with the exception of Buratai, and that it was their impeccable records that gave them the job. Morgan therefore is highly qualified to hold any command position. Bringing him into the rerun campaign and in this manner is a clear case of defeat staring a desperate man in the face, hence, he is only trying to create a mountain out of a molehill. AVM Morgan has only one vote; the electorate are David Mark’s problem, rather than divert attention, he should answer to their critical questions bothering on his 17 years stewardship of the zone. Bringing AVM Morgan in the mix is cheap blackmail based most probably on envy since Morgan, unlike Mark, has never been a political officer.
He asserted that , ‘’Senator David Mark and his front, the faceless, nameless, shameless impostors Idoma Elders are feeling the heat from the collective resolve of the people of Benue south to liberate themselves fully from the clutches of a man who has ridden on their backs for the past seventeen (17)years without any commensurate development or change in their status. What is it that Mark did not achieve in seventeen (17)years that he is going to achieve in the next three (3) years? Because he has not provided quality representation to the marginalized and long suffering people of Benue south in the 17 years he has been in the senate (the last one year as an illegal tenant), he has resorted to frivolities and diverting attention from core issues, especially on his stewardship to the Benue people that are demanding urgent answers. Mark has always thrived on lies and deceit-the hallmark of Mark!
‘’All well meaning Idoma people call on the President and Commander-in-Chief, and the public to completely discountenance the shenanigans of this mud slinger. While appreciating President Muhammadu Buhari for appointing our son, AVM Monday Morgan as the Chief of Defence Intelligence based on merit, we equally reiterate our confidence in AVM Morgan’s professionalism and his ability to deliver. We also pledge our loyalty to President Buhari who should ignore the foul cry of David Mark and his cohorts.
Onje further advised Mark ‘’to leave AVM Morgan alone and focus on issues instead of diabolical, destructive distractions. He and I are both Idoma sons in the race; the contest is between us. He should face me and leave an innocent professional and dedicated patriot out of it. Mark is been apprehensive of the shadow of his past. He had always used the instrumentality and paraphernalia of office to have his way by being declared winner every time he contested irrespective of the genuine wishes of the people. Today, he is no more in control. Stripped off the paraphernalia of office and power, Mark is just an individual Idoma like me and the electorate will decide, in a free, fair and just contest, who among us they want to represent them. Leave AVM Morgan out of it!
‘’This position of David Mark is a sharp contrast to his earlier boast of his willingness to die for Idoma people! How can a man willing to die for his people call for the sack of a prominent Idoma of high repute from an exalted office, all in desperate quest for power ? Or is it our Tiv brothers that are calling for the head of one of our own again? Little wonder, a man who had severally held that the Idomas are a minority as such, cannot afford to be in opposition, has eaten back his word, as he is selfishly seeking to plunge the Idomas into opposition,’’ the statement read.
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