Benue, the “Food Basket of the Nation” in Nigeria’s middle belt, has large Tiv, Idoma and Igede populations, and the question of which group produces the governor runs through its politics: every governor since 1999 has been Tiv. The PDP held the state from 1999 to 2015. Since then it has changed hands with its governors’ party switches as much as with elections, and the long crisis of killings by armed herders in rural Benue has become a central issue at every poll.
1999 and 2003: Akume
George Akume, a former civil servant, won the January 1999 election for the PDP with 584,530 votes. He was re-elected in April 2003 with 681,717 votes, beating the ANPP’s Paul Unongo, a veteran politician. Akume later went to the Senate, led the opposition there from 2011 to 2015, served as a minister under President Buhari and became Secretary to the Government of the Federation in 2023.
2007 and 2011: Suswam
Akume’s successor, Gabriel Torwua Suswam, a lawyer and member of the House of Representatives, won in April 2007 with 1,086,489 votes against 276,618 for the ANPP’s Daniel Saror. The two men later fell out. In April 2011 Suswam was re-elected in a much tighter race, 590,756 votes to 499,319 for Steven Ugbah of the Action Congress of Nigeria, which Akume had joined.
2015: Ortom’s switch
Samuel Ortom, a former minister of state for trade, lost the PDP governorship primary in December 2014, moved to the APC and was adopted as its candidate within days. Riding the APC’s national wave, he won on 11 April 2015 with 422,932 votes against 313,878 for the PDP’s Terhemen Tarzoor. The courts upheld his victory.
2019: back to the PDP
Ortom’s first term was dominated by attacks on farming communities by armed herders and by his open-grazing ban of 2017, which put him at odds with the federal government. In July 2018 he left the APC and returned to the PDP. The election of 9 March 2019 was declared inconclusive, and after a supplementary poll on 23 March he was re-elected with 434,473 votes against 345,155 for the APC’s Emmanuel Jime. The Supreme Court affirmed his election in January 2020.
2023: the priest
The APC’s 2023 candidate was Hyacinth Iormem Alia, a Catholic priest whose bishop suspended him from ministry for going into partisan politics. He won a disputed primary in 2022 and then the election on 18 March 2023 with 473,933 votes (62.6%) against 223,913 for the PDP’s Titus Uba, the Speaker of the state assembly. Herman Hembe of the Labour Party came third with 41,881.
The results at a glance
| Year | Winner (party) | Votes | Runner-up (party) | Votes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | George Akume (PDP) | 584,530 | APP candidate | not published |
| 2003 | George Akume (PDP) | 681,717 | Paul Unongo (ANPP) | not published |
| 2007 | Gabriel Suswam (PDP) | 1,086,489 | Daniel Saror (ANPP) | 276,618 |
| 2011 | Gabriel Suswam (PDP) | 590,756 | Steven Ugbah (ACN) | 499,319 |
| 2015 | Samuel Ortom (APC) | 422,932 | Terhemen Tarzoor (PDP) | 313,878 |
| 2019 | Samuel Ortom (PDP) | 434,473 | Emmanuel Jime (APC) | 345,155 |
| 2023 | Hyacinth Alia (APC) | 473,933 | Titus Uba (PDP) | 223,913 |
2027: Alia against Aondoakaa
Alia is seeking a second term on the APC ticket in the 6 February 2027 election. INEC’s final list names Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, Attorney-General of the Federation under President Yar’Adua, as the PDP candidate, and Herman Hembe, now with the ADC.
