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The Benue State House of Assembly has rejected Vincent Gisaor, one of the nominees for the membership of the Benue State Independent Electoral Commission, for allegedly insulting the Tiv tribe in a Facebook post.
Gisaor was one of the eight nominees for the state electoral commission submitted for screening by Governor Hyacinth Alia.
The other nominees are Dr John Chen (Chairman), Terhemen Shom, Theodore Uchi, Solomon Deva, Edache Isaac, Gloria Clement, and Peter Ogagbolo.
During the plenary session, the lawmaker representing Konshisha State Constituency, Cephas Dyako, called the Assembly’s attention to a Facebook post made by Gisaor.
Dyako told the House that: “Mr Gisaor said in Tiv dialect ‘your nyash’ to all the Tiv people in his post, which I find very derogatory from a person of his standing.”
Dyako said one person who commented on Gisaor’s Facebook post advised him to delete the post and apologise but he refused to do so.
When the nominee was asked to defend himself, he explained that he met an elderly woman during a fight between the Yarev and Ikparev people of Tyo-mu in the Makurdi Local Government Area and it was the woman who insulted the Tiv people while talking to him.
“I merely quoted the woman but the record I made of the woman’s reply to me when I asked what caused the fight, unfortunately, got deleted from the post,” Gisaor stated.
The lawmakers rejected Gisoar’s explanation, on the ground that it lacked facts
All the lawmakers, who contributed to the debate, agreed that the nominee was not fit to hold such a public office and urged the House not to confirm his nomination.
The Speaker, Hyacinth Dajoh, said that the nominee never quoted anyone in the post, and so it was assumed that it was his opinion.
The Speaker, therefore, asked the governor to nominate another person in place of Gisaor.
However, of the seven nominees, only Terhemen Shom was confirmed.
The House asked the other six members to submit their curriculum vitae which should contain all the records of their educational qualifications before they could be screened.
