The Kogi East APC Youths Vanguard has issued a strongly worded rejoinder rejecting claims that the Kogi State Government, under Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo, has recorded “massive development” in the Kogi East senatorial zone, describing the assertion as misleading and an affront to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In a statement signed by its convener, Umar Isah, and dated July 23, 2026, in Abuja, the group faulted an earlier article titled “Strides Powered By Tinubu’s Policies, Reforms,” insisting the piece misrepresented the reality on ground in Kogi East.
According to the statement, Kogi East — described as the largest senatorial zone in the state and the zone that delivered the highest number of votes for President Tinubu in the last presidential election — has not benefited from a single state government project under the current administration. The group said no road, hospital, school, market, or borehole had been provided across the zone’s nine local government areas despite what it called substantial allocations flowing to the state on the back of federal economic reforms.
The Vanguard singled out the Ogane-Iyale-Enugu road, the only project it said the state government had referenced as evidence of development in the zone, disputing that it could be credited to the Ododo administration. The group described the road as a World Bank-funded project initiated before the current government took office and said claiming credit for it amounted to deception.
The statement posed a direct question to state authorities: where the impact of Kogi State’s FAAC allocations could be found in Kogi East, if the Renewed Hope Agenda was truly being implemented across the state.
The youth group credited whatever development the zone had witnessed to federal lawmakers rather than the state government, naming Senator Isah Jibrin (Echocho), members of the National Assembly from the zone, and the Minister of Steel Development, Prince Shaibu Abubakar Audu, as the officials it said had not abandoned the area.
Despite its criticism of the state government, the group reaffirmed its support for President Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027, citing the appointment of Kogi East indigenes into federal positions and the performance of the zone’s National Assembly members as grounds for continued loyalty to the president.
The Vanguard, however, warned against what it termed the use of “propaganda and media tours” to curry favour with the presidency while the zone remained neglected at home, and called on the state government to redirect attention and resources to Kogi East.
“Come to Kogi East and work,” the group said, urging that federal allocations be reflected in visible projects rather than press statements.
