{"id":196983,"date":"2026-03-17T20:15:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T19:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/benue-assembly-recommends-suspension-of-sports-chief"},"modified":"2026-03-17T21:22:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T20:22:18","slug":"benue-assembly-recommends-suspension-of-sports-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/benue-assembly-recommends-suspension-of-sports-chief","title":{"rendered":"Benue Assembly Recommends Suspension of Sports Chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>The Benue State House of Assembly has recommended the indefinite suspension of the Executive Secretary of the Benue State Sports Marketing and Lottery Board, Mr. Michael Upev, over allegations of corruption, abuse of office, and gross misconduct.<\/p>\n<p>The decision was reached during a plenary presided over by the Speaker, Rt Hon. Alfred Emberga.<\/p>\n<p>This followed a report by the House Standing Committee on Finance, chaired by Hon. Dr. Mathew Damkor, on its oversight functions of the board.<\/p>\n<p>During their oversight visit, the committee members discovered that the Executive Secretary also serves as a consultant to the board through the company Upper Premier Service Limited.<\/p>\n<p>He reportedly configured a payment solution platform that allows only him access to the back end and linked his company\u2019s accounts as receiving accounts, among other irregularities.<\/p>\n<p>The House unanimously called for his indefinite suspension to enable the State Government to restructure the board for optimal performance.<\/p>\n<p>Also during plenary, the Benue State Agency for International Cooperation and Development Bill was read for the third time and passed into law.<\/p>\n<p>The bill was passed following the report of the House Standing Committee on Sustainable Development Goals and Donor Agencies, chaired by Hon. Douglas Akya, representing Makurdi South State Constituency.<\/p>\n<p>According to a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker, Michael Zape, a bill to establish diabetes care and free treatment in the Ministry of Health enjoyed its first reading today on the floor of the House.<\/p>\n<p>The bill was presented by Hon. Manger Manger, representing Tarka State Constituency.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. The Benue State House of Assembly has recommended the indefinite suspension of the Executive Secretary of the Benue State Sports Marketing and Lottery Board, Mr. Michael Upev, over allegations of corruption, abuse of office, and gross misconduct. The decision was reached during a plenary presided over by the Speaker, Rt Hon. Alfred [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":196982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-196983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Benue Assembly Recommends Suspension of Sports Chief - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Benue State House of Assembly has recommended the indefinite suspension of the Executive Secretary of the Benue Stat ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/benue-assembly-recommends-suspension-of-sports-chief\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Benue Assembly Recommends Suspension of Sports Chief\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Benue State House of Assembly has recommended the indefinite suspension of the Executive Secretary of the Benue Stat ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/benue-assembly-recommends-suspension-of-sports-chief\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-17T19:15:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-17T20:22:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/sm_1773778907.382668.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"608\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/benue-assembly-recommends-suspension-of-sports-chief#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/benue-assembly-recommends-suspension-of-sports-chief\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Benue Assembly Recommends Suspension of Sports Chief\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-17T19:15:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-17T20:22:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/benue-assembly-recommends-suspension-of-sports-chief\"},\"wordCount\":274,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/benue-assembly-recommends-suspension-of-sports-chief#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/sm_1773778907.382668.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/benue-assembly-recommends-suspension-of-sports-chief#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/benue-assembly-recommends-suspension-of-sports-chief\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/benue-assembly-recommends-suspension-of-sports-chief\",\"name\":\"Benue Assembly Recommends Suspension of Sports Chief - 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