The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has set up a 17-member committee to run the affairs of the crisis-ridden Benue State chapter.
The committee led by retired Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Napoleon Bali, was inaugurated at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja on Wednesday.
The state chapter of the main opposition party has been in crisis leading to it loss of power to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 governorship election.
Two former governors of the state, Gabriel Suswam and Samuel Ortom have also recently been suspended by this wards.
The committee has been given 90 days to organize a congress that will elect a new executive for the party in the state.
The inauguration was performed by the National Chairman of the party, Umar Damagum, who appealed to the new committee to carry everyone along irrespective of their baggages.
He said: “Your duty is simple to usher in a new executive during this ongoing Congress. This is not an easy task, you must avoid sentiments, selfishness and taking all even though you come from various interests.
“You must also put the party first, before your personal interest. Until you have a party in Benue, you will not be able to achieve in Benue. We have a dounting task.
“We all know the crisis there, that led to our bad outing during the last election and I am sure we should use this opportunity and you to correct that anomaly that made us lose that state which is predominantly a PDP state.
“I am very happy with the selection of the Chairman to lead the committee and enjoin, all of you to give the support he needs. The only way to succeed is through getting the necessary support, the Chairman is going to Benue to help you achieve reconciliation, progress that has so far been retarded within the party in Benue.
“You must work for an inclusive executive for the state. In any party you have the good and the bad, you must carry all along, everyone is important.”
In his remark in an interview later, AVM Bali Bali, promised that the committee will work as a team to restore PDP to its pride of place in Benue State.
He said: “We are going to work as a team and I want to tell Benue People is that by the grace of God, PDP is coming back and we are going to take over the leadership of Benue state in 2027.
“There are quite a lot of issues in Benue state. The former governor Samuel Ortom was suspended by his ward and the same with former governor Suswam and these are the people you were supposed to work with and reconcile.
“As a retired general, we are well thought on conflict management. It is not a question of Ortom or Suswan, but by the grace of God, I together with all these members of this committee are going to unite them. “Conflict management is just a matter of give and take, we shall look at the issues and address the issues. If we cannot address, can somebody take some and leave some? The is what conflict management is all about. So I can assure you that we are going to unite all the big names and people of PDP in Benue State.
“So, I can assure you that they will all come on board. So, if they are listening to me, I am calling on all of them to give us all the necessary cooperation so that we will do our job without fear of favour.
“I strongly believe that they are very reasonable people and seasoned Nigerians, they will listen to us and we work with them to takeover the leadership of the state.”
On the 90-day timeline to conduct fresh congress to elect new leaders, he said: “We will look at the task ahead, look at the issues and definitely if we cannot make in 90 days, we will make sure that we will let the originating authority know.
“If we need more time, I believe that the National Working Committee will give us more time but I believe strongly that with the issues that I have informally heard, we should be able to resolve them within 90 days.”