2023: Reverend Father Suspended For Joining Governorship Race

The Catholic Diocese of Gboko, Benue State has suspended one of its reverend fathers, Hyacinth Jormen Alia, for pertaking in the 2023 governorship race in Benue State.

Newsbreak.ng reports that the suspension letter dated May 20, 2022, said Father Alia had been suspended from ‘Sacred Ministry’ after a “series of admonitions to him” to respect a rule of the Roman Catholic Church which bars all clerics from partisan politics.

Father Alia was said to have registered as a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and picked the N50 million Benue governorship forms of the party.

While rolling out his seven-point agenda for the development of Benue in early May, the cleric had said that “Benue is broken enough and it’s time to fix it. I joined partisan politics to salvage the state from collapse,” adding that “Social justice will be adhered to, to the context of ‘One Benue, One Brotherhood”.

But in the letter addressed to all priests, religious leaders, and congregation, the Catholic Bishop of the Gboko Diocese, Willam Avenya, said Father Alia had been barred from public ministry until “he ceases from contumacy (stubborn refusal to obey or comply with authority)”.