A governorship aspirant under the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Sunday Umoru has described security situation in Kogi State as deplorable.
This is following repeated claims by Governor Yahaya Bello that Kogi State is safe and peaceful.
Chief Umoru expressed his dissatisfaction over the insecurity in Kogi State, ciing the recent incidents in the state where the director of works at Federal Polytechnic Idah, Mr Solomon Sani was murdered in cold blood by unknown gun men.
“Mr Solomon Sani was assassinated in his Idah residence in the evening of Tuesday, July 17 2018 according to police report. While Alhaji Usman Jibola of Obaro of Jakura town in Lokoja Local Government Area, who was kidnapped is yet to be released by his abductors. The monarch was kidnapped at about 6:30 p.m. of July 17, 2018 alongside his driver, Mr Raphael Elijah, while returning to his domain from Lokoja when he was accosted by the five-man kidnap gang, and also had his first son, Mr Rasheed Ajibola shot dead by the kidnappers.
“Similarly, the Kogi West Senator Dino Melaye’s constituency school building projects which was due for commissioning was destroyed and set ablaze by unknown arsonists. All these atrocities occurred due to lack of adequate security measures to protect the lives and properties of the people of Kogi State.
“We must call a spade a spade, the governance style of Governor Yahaya Bello is that which encourage crime of various kinds in the state hence arrest are not often made talk more of prosecution to serve as a deterrent.
“Governor Yahaya Bello’s administration has virtually done nothing significantly in addressing the insecurity, most especially kidnapping which has become very rampant in the state even with an approximate whopping sum of N4.8billion Naira security votes available to Gov. Bello annually.
“As a matter of fact the governor is regarded as the chief security officer of the state, plus the monthly security votes which runs into millions allocated to the state should be adequately utilize to address the insecurity in the state “perhaps these funds are misappropriated” I will leave the probe to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC to handle after his exit from office in 2019.
“The security measures put in place by Bello’s administration by and large has not helped to combat crimes in the state, and the unpleasant thing to imagine and the height of it, is that of the central senatorial district senator, Ahmed Ogembe, who is from the same senatorial district with Gov. Bello was attacked by hoodlums early this year in his constituent during an empowerment program organized by the senator which will benefit women in his constituency was disrupted as a result of the attack and till date perpetrators of that crime have not been brought to book, because the seven persons that were arraigned to have carried out that attack has since been granted bail for the sum of N20,000 by the Lokoja Magistrate court because their arrest and arraignment lack genuine circumstances.
“It’s so sad that since APC party came into power in the state hooliganism has been the order of the day, community and political thuggery, kidnapping, armed robbery, Fulani herdsmen killings among other crimes have significantly increased and Bello’s administration has failed in dealing with these crimes decisively to a logical conclusion. All these are clear indications that adequate security measures have not been given serious attention by the Bello’s administration period!,” he said.
The 2019 Kogi State gubernatorial aspirant and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Sunday Umoru once again reiterated that if given the mandate in 2019 to become the next governor of the state, the insecurity in the state will be a thing of the past.
