Alia's camp opens 2027 drive in Benue, urges members to collect PVCs
- Benue Governor Hyacinth Alia's camp has launched a support group to push for APC wins in 2027.
- The governor, represented by state APC chairman Benjamin Omale, said President Tinubu deserves a second term.
- Members were urged to collect their voter cards and take the mobilisation to wards and polling units.
Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia has set his sights on 2027, asking All Progressives Congress (APC) members in the state to work for President Bola Tinubu's re-election and for the party's candidates at every level.
The governor's message came through the state APC chairman, Benjamin Omale, who stood in for him at the launch of a support group called "Alia for All, All for Alia" in Makurdi on Monday.
Omale said the Tinubu administration had delivered in health, education and infrastructure, and argued that a second term would let the President carry on with his Renewed Hope agenda.
He also asked party members to keep their politicking peaceful and to make sure they hold voter cards.
"I encourage every one of you to have your voter's card," Omale said on the governor's behalf.
Push down to the wards
Maxwell Ogiri, chairman of Otukpo Local Government Area, spoke for the group's local government coordinators. He said the real work lies in communities, wards and polling units, and that members should press registered voters who have not picked up their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to do so before the elections.
Ogiri said the group intends to build a network at the grassroots to deliver votes for Tinubu and Alia in 2027.
Retired Major General Lawrence Onoja, the group's patron, sent word through his son, Lawrence Onoja Jr., a former Benue information commissioner. He asked members to bury personal differences and avoid infighting, saying a united party stands a better chance of winning across the board.
For ordinary Benue residents, the event is an early sign that the 2027 campaign is already moving from speeches to street-level organising. Voter cards matter in practice: without a PVC, a registered voter cannot cast a ballot, and turnout in Benue, like much of Nigeria, often decides tight races.
What happens next will depend on how far the group's ward-level network grows and whether the party settles its internal disputes before primaries. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has not announced the timetable for the 2027 general elections.
