The tactical indictment of the November 16, 2019 Kogi governorship election evidenced by the US visa ban imposed on those who brazenly rigged the elections as justified the position of the Kogi West Zonal Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Benson Omofe.
Exactly one week ago, Prince Benson Omofe announced to anyone in doubt that regardless of the brazen electoral robbery witnessed at the polls in the state last year, Kogi remain a PDP state!
This noble assertion has been further reinforced by the action of United States of America’s government. More revelations will follow this as truth will always prevail.
Prince Benson Omofe reminded those who are carried away by stolen mandates that the people of Kogi state know who they voted for and the party they supported. There is no better way to reinforce this than the way the Zonal Chairman did.
This is a wake up call to the electorate and politicians in the state. We know who we are, where we are going to and the platform we desire to use. The current power buccaneers are living on borrowed time and adorned with borrowed oversize robes. It is evident that the power usurpers are unwanted characters in our polity as they struggle everyday to force people to accept them.
Since January 2016, the Bellotic Gang have been struggling for acceptance and when it was not forthcoming they resorted to brute force to assert themselves on the people. Kogi people must like us by force! If we steal their votes through barrel of guns, they will submit! When we clear the 25 seats in the state assembly, by hook or by crook, they will know their master! Yes, they made true their threats but unfortunately, they remain unloved, unaccepted. No one, anywhere in the world, has been able to endear him or herself to the people through threats, intimidation and violence. No one.
It is very clear that the current marauders are aliens in our political space. They had no place in our past, our present and have done nothing to merit a place in our future. Sorrow may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. As certain as it is that the sun will rise every morning, Kogi will be free sooner than envisaged.
The new Kogi West Zonal Chairman. in his wake up call, told the world that PDP in the state is a proactive party as they are focused on subsequent elections.
Prince Benson Omofe called for true reconciliation in the party. This is yet another wake up call. PDP is well loved in Kogi state and has won most of the elections conducted in the state since 1999. All elections lost to other parties since 1999 can be traced to internal wrangling. PDP lost 1999 governorship due to internal crisis that was unresolved before the polls. This is true for every election genuinely lost in the state since 1999. It is obvious that Kogi is a PDP state because every election won by another party has been aided by aggrieved PDP members.
Time has come to heed Prince Benson Omofe’s wake up call and begin moves to genuinely reconcile aggrieved members across the state. We cannot afford to wait till when the next round of elections are close and ambitions are on the fast lane. The time to build a united front that will reclaim the state is now. Kogi remains a PDP state.
– Abidemi Olalekan writes from Lokoja.
