John Dyegh
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John Dyegh (born 2 December 1962) is a Nigerian politician, businessman and philanthropist from Gboko, Benue State who served as a member of the
9th Nigeria National Assembly The 9th National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was a bicameral legislature inaugurated on 11 June 2019 and ran its course until 11 June 2023. Principal Officers Senate Presiding officers Majority leadership Minor ...
, representing
Gboko Gboko is a Local Government Area in Benue state, North-central Nigeria. It is headquartered in the town of Gboko. Gboko LGA was created on11 May 1970 with a landmass of 2,264 sq km. Wielding a population of 358,936 according to 2006 census, it ...
/ Tarka Federal constituency at the
House of Representatives of Nigeria The House of Representatives (also called Green Chamber) is the lower chamber of Nigeria's bicameral National Assembly of Nigeria, National Assembly. The Senate of Nigeria, Senate is the upper chamber. The Green Chamber has 360 members who ar ...
. Dyegh previously served as a member of committee on Appropriations,
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,
Narcotics The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "I make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates ...
and Financial Crimes, Education, Gas Resources, Inter-Parliamentary Relations, Science and Technology in the 7th National Assembly. He ran for the second term as a favourite candidate, bearing the flag of the All Progressives Congress and retained his seat, following the announcement of 28 March National Assembly Polls in the 2015 General Elections in which he polled 67,463 votes to defeat his challenger, Bernard Nenger of the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) with 26,329 votes. He ran for a third term on the platform of the All Progressives Congress and won. Dyegh successfully served his 3rd term in the National Assembly and was the House committee chairman on Human Rights. He ran for a fourth term under the platform of the Peoples' Democratic Party where he lost to Regina Akume, a candidate of the
All Progressives Congress The All Progressives Congress (APC) is one of the two major contemporary political parties in Nigeria, along with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Founded on 6 February 2013 from a merger of Nigeria's three largest opposition parties, t ...
in the 2023 general elections.


Early life

John Dyegh was born at Gboko in 1962. He received elementary schooling at LGEA Primary School Gboko, earning First School Leaving Certificate before proceeding to Mbawuar Secondary School Ihugh in
Vandeikya Vandeikya is a local government area in Benue State Nigeria. The capital is Vandeikya town. Vandeikya LGA was carved out of Gboko Local Government Council in 1976. The indigenous community is the Kunav people who speak Tiv language. The Vandeik ...
Local Government Area, for Senior Secondary School Certificate. He then studied at the
Benue State University Benue State University is a state-owned university in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria. In 2006, student enrolment was over 19,000 served by 7 faculties and 23 departments. The university offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs with a catal ...
for both undergraduate and post-graduate degrees. John Dyegh obtained a Doctorate at the same institution, making him the first and the only House of Representatives Member to have represented a constituency with the highest educational qualification from Benue State, a record that is yet to be matched.


Political career

Dyegh garnered political prominence when he ran successfully on the platform of the then main opposition party in Nigeria – the
Action Congress of Nigeria The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), formerly known as Action Congress (AC), was a Nigerian political party formed via the merger from the coming together of a faction of Alliance for Democracy, the Justice Party, the Advance Congress of D ...
(ACN) for the House of Representatives seat to represent Gboko/Tarka Federal Constituency. Despite running as an out of favour candidate, he polled overwhelming 85,917 votes to defeat rival, Barr. Tony Ijohor who ran under the umbrella of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but trailed Dyegh by 55,540 votes. Widely regarded as one of the best performing members of the "Green Chamber" in Benue State, Dyegh enjoys overwhelming support and wider admiration for his speedy rural electrification initiatives, donating more than ten transformers to various communities and sinking over thirty boreholes as well as building classroom blocks in many primary and post-primary institutions of learning in his constituency within only three years in office. Dyegh is known for awarding scholarships to students of higher colleges thereby, ending scholarship drought among the students of college age in his constituency; he donates large sums of money to the poor, a quality that marks him out as a philanthropist. The politician is also credited for his unique ability in executing constituency projects, making him one of the most admired politicians of his generation in his constituency ahead of many others. Dyegh has sponsored the Nigerian Electoral Offences Commission Bill, 2011. The bill seeks establishment of an Electoral Offenses Commission but received only its first reading on 7 February 2012. On 20 March 2017, Dyegh accused the
Federal Government of Nigeria The federal government of Nigeria is composed of three distinct branches: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial, whose powers are vested and bestowed upon by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. One of the primary f ...
for failing to protect human lives ahead of cows and other livestock in the country, claiming that some powerful Nigerians were frustrating the passage of the bill prohibiting open grazing pending before the House. Dyegh said this following wanton killing of the Tiv farmers by the Fulani herdsmen in his own state of Benue, with the Nigerian government failing to end the clashes. He cited the case of a bill sponsored by Senator Barnabas Gemade at the Senate to have suffered the same fate. He advised the government to be decisive in curbing the clashes between the herdsmen and farmers.


Controversy

In July 2016, the Commissioner of Public Complaints Commission in Benue State, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav called for the interrogation of Hon John Dyegh, the then Gboko Local Government chairman, Emmanuel Kwagba and Hon Terhemba Chabo of the Benue State House of Assembly over allegation of the destruction of some property belonging to a widow in Ikyumbur, Mbatiav, Gboko Local Government Area of Benue State. In a petition written by Adam Terkula Raphael, son of the widow, Eunice Adam, alleged that Hon John Dyegh and others aided the destruction of his mother's property which included houses, farm produce, a motorcycle and economic trees valued at ten million naira (N10,000,000). Raphael in his petition to the Public Complaints Commission stated that when Hon Dyegh was informed about the initial destruction of 160 lines of yams and cassava by Lagos, a political thug in Gboko and his gang, instead of coming to their aid, Dyegh mobilised the youths to cause further havoc. "He told the whole community that my mother is a very bad woman and they should go ahead and burn down her house", "He described our house as the only home of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in his own kingdom, Mbatiav and that while he is from the APC nothing of PDP should exist in his own council ward," the petitioner also stressed that the lawmaker was "erroneously informed that my mother had named her dog after him."


References


External links


Nassnig.orgWhoiswhonigeria.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dyegh, John Members of the 8th National Assembly (Nigeria) Members of the 9th National Assembly (Nigeria) Living people 1962 births People from Gboko Nigerian businesspeople Nigerian philanthropists