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By Myke Agunwa
The embattled Speaker of Benue State House of Assembly, Hon. Hyacinth Dajoh has resigned.
Hon. Dajoh announced his resignation on Sunday in a letter addressed to The Clerk, Benue State House of Assembly, Makurdi dated August 24, 2025.
Sources close to the Assembly disclosed that Dajoh, who had been facing mounting opposition from within, opted to step down rather than face another bruising showdown that could have further deepened divisions among lawmakers.
The resignation letter reads, “I write to resign by position as Speaker of Benue State House of Assembly effective today 24th August, 2024.
“This is done in good faith and in the best interest of the state.
“I want to appreciate my colleagues for the opportunity they gave me to be first among equals.
“I pledge to remain committed to my duties as a legislator and representative of Gboko West State Constituency”.
The relationship between the speaker and the governor had been very cordial untill lately when two commissioner nominees were rejected by the House of the Assembly.
Pointblanknews.com learnt that the Benue State Governor, Rev. Hyacinth Alia had submitted eight nominees to the House. Initially, the Assembly stalled screening in early August 2025, demanding that the governor respect its resolutions, specifically implementing suspensions of government officials accused of misconduct and providing official vehicles for seven lawmakers—before proceeding.
After the governor partially complied by suspending the officials for one month, the Assembly resumed scrutiny and two nominees were rejected: Prof. Timothy Ornguga who faced multiple petitions from former students alleging academic victimisation, psychological abuse, manipulation of exam results and James Dwen accused in two petitions of embezzling local government funds during his tenure as a council chairman
Six candidates were thereafter cleared and it was learnt that the governor may have seen the rejection as a spite on his personality.
Shortly after, there was an unsuccessful attempt to impeach the Speaker last Friday.
As a result of the ill-fated move, four members of the State Assembly, namely: Hons. Alfred Berger representing Makurdi North State Constituency, Cyril Ekong of Oju 2, Abu Umoru of Apa, and Shimawua Terna of Kyan State Constituency, were suspended for three months during plenary same day for initiating impeachment moves.
Their suspension following a motion by the Majority Leader of the House, Saater Tiseer, who drew the attention of the House to the alleged plot by the four members to unseat the Speaker.
He recalled that the House had two days earlier, passed a confidence vote on the Speaker and Governor Alia and described the action of the four members as dishonourable and intended to create acrimony in the House because “they went behind to mobilise other members to cause chaos in the House.” He moved that the House suspend the lawmakers “from legislative duties for six months for indulging in dishonourable actions capable of causing acrimony in the House.”
Seconding the motion, the lawmaker representing Gwer East, Elias Audu condemned the action of the quartet and supported the motion calling for their suspension for six months. Also seconding the motion, the Majority Chief Whip, Peter Ipusu said if he had his way, the four lawmakers would have been suspended for one year.
While condemning the action of the four lawmakers, Mr. Ipusu said “all our actions and our deeds have consequences. If somebody pulls a trigger at you and fails, it is better you kill the person before he gets an opportunity to do it again.
“I feel so pained that a member of the leadership of the tenth Assembly would be nursing the ambition of becoming a speaker when there is no problem in this House.
“He knew what he was doing, if he had succeeded, today he would have been sitting up there as the Speaker. He failed, he has no basis to remain in this House in the next six months. I want to support that motion wholeheartedly.
Ruling, the Speaker disagreed with members on the call for six months suspension of the four lawmakers saying “I take exception to where you said they should be suspended for six months, they should rather be suspended for three months.” He then directed the sergeant at arms to take the affected lawmakers out of the chambers.
Meanwhile, the governor has denied links to the failed impeachment move against the Speaker.
A statement by the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the Governor, Tersoo Kula, partly read, “The governor, Hyacinth Alia, is not aware of and has no involvement whatsoever in any purported attempt to remove the speaker or in any activities currently taking place in the Benue state house of assembly.
“The governor continues to enjoy a cordial and productive working relationship with the Dajoh-led assembly and remains committed to supporting it in the discharge of its legislative duties for the overall development of Benue state.”