Mr. Aondona Dajoh of the All Progressives Congress, APC, representing Gboko West State Constituency, Gboko Local Government Area, LGA, has emerged the Speaker of the 32-member Benue State House of Assembly.

The new Speaker clinched the seat after a keen contest with the Mrs. Becky Orpin also of the APC representing Gboko East State constituency.

He emerged after two rounds of voting, polling a total of 17 votes to defeat Mrs. Opin who garnered 15 votes.

The duo had earlier polled 16 votes each at the end of first ballot. The House thereafter went on break and reconeneved after two hours for the repeat of the exercise.

The supporters of the two contestants had earlier on the floor of the House engaged in a shouting match which exposed the fact that Mrs. Opin was the purported preferred candidate of the Secretary to Government of the Federation, SGF, Senator George Akume, while the new Speaker, Mr. Dajoh was the candidate of the State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia.

Before the second round of voting, suppoters of Mrs. Opin had insisted that Governor Alia who was present on the floor of the House to monitor the exercise stepped out.

The issue left members shouting at each other and were almost threwing punches when the Clark, Mr. Bernard Nule prevailed and restored normalcy.

And at about 3:15pm, military personnel in three trucks were seen moving  into the Assembly complex to further strengthen security in the vicinity to avert any breakdown of law and order as the sharp division and near fiscuff on the floor of the House had also spilled into the huge crowd of supporters of the two contenders waiting outside the complex for the outcome of the voting exercise.

After the election of Mr. Dajoh as the Speaker, Mrs. Lami Danladi of Ado State Constituency also emerged as the unopposed Deputy Speaker of the House.

In his inaugural speech, the new Speaker appreciated his colleagues for finding him worthy of the position and his party, the APC, for providing him the platform to contest.

He also appreciated his people for giving him the mandate, Governor Alia for inaugurating the 10th Assembly as well as the leader of the party and Secretary to the Government of the Federal, SFG, Sen George Akume for his sterling leadership qualities which he said had inspired them.

He described his emergence as a product of the unity of the house, saying “Our success as a House depends on this unity because a house divided against itself cannot stand.”

He said: “As a House, we pledge to key into the renewed hope agenda of the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government to deliver good governance to the Benue citizens.”

He pledged to be a servant leader saying the concept of checks and balances must be put into practice in their daily business just as he also promised good working relationship between the Legislative and the Executive arms of government.

The House shortly after adjourned sitting till June 20, 2023.

It would be recalled that the APC during its stakeholders meeting held Sunday night nominated Mrs. Opin as the preferred candidate for Speakership of the House but her nomination was jettisoned by majority of members shortly after inauguration and  voting by members.