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Youth Group Berates Kogi East Elders Over Attack on Governor Bello
By adminNov 21, 2017, 00:00 am
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Hundreds of youths from the eastern flank of Kogi state has berated Kogi East Elders Council (KEEC) over its recent allegations of maladministration and bad governance leveled against Governor Yahaya Bello.
Addressing newsmen at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Centre in Lokoja today, the youths who are members of the Kogi East Coalition of Youths for Good Governance passed a vote of confidence on Governor Bello for providing adequate security of lives and property as well as provision of infrastructure development and road construction in the three senatorial districts of the state.
Speaking on behalf of the group, Comrade Ishaq Onuh Alfred said the self acclaimed elders council lack the moral grounds to criticize Governor Yahaya Bello, stressing that the same set of people who inflicted underdevelopment and socio-economic backwardness on the state for 13 years cannot turn around to be standing for good governance in the state.
According to the youths, the allegations raised by Kogi East Elders, which include insecurity, unpaid salaries, the stalemate at the Kogi State University, Anyigba among others were deliberate attempt to orchestrate conflict between the zone and the government.
Ishaq explained that the elders, many of whom live outside the state raised the allegations because they were disconnected with the development in the state, adding that the state had witnessed unprecedented development in the last two years.
“All KEEC’s allegations as mentioned in their statement were lies and a politically motivated attempt to distract the government of Alhaji Yahaya Bello that has been striving to correct the ills in the governance of the state by the previous administrations.
“It is now obvious that the Kogi East Elders Council is a self serving group having neither the mandate nor the support of the traditional institutions and the people of Kogi East Senatorial District. They must be ignored because they are not fighting for us.
“No administration has ever prioritize issues of security like this present administration. The governor has made concerted effort in providing peaceful environment for the citizens. In the past kidnapping and other heinous crimes took over the State. This crop of elders were in the state but did not complain but remained silent”, he noted.
The Kogi east youths also noted that the present administration had been fair to the senatorial district in terms of distribution of projects and appointments as the zone had the highest number of appointments.
He said, “At least 60 percent of Governor Yahaya Bello’s appointees are from Kogi east senatorial district, including the deputy governor. Similarly, the list of projects in the region is practically endless and constitutes a similar percentage of the aggregate number of projects and monies spent by the administration”.
It would be recalled that the KEEC in a statement by Senator Ahmadu Ali last week had described the Bello led administration in the state as an “unmitigated disaster”.
The group noted that the state had not witnessed any meaningful development since the coming on board of Bello, decrying the state of insecurity, crime, non-payment of salaries of workers among others.
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