Igala Vanguard, a socio-political organisation, has berated Governor Yahaya Bello over his alleged threats over the forthcoming 2023 general elections in Kogi state.
In a statement signed by the secretary of the organization, Engr. Lawrence Akpa, Governor Bello’s alleged threats in a viral video was made in Ihima, Okehi LGA over the weekend.
However, Akpa said it will not be business as usual during the general elections and Kogi state governorship polls expected to hold in November 2023.
He challenged Governor Bello to tackle dearth of under development, insecurity, kidnappings, banditry and lack of social services confronting his failed administration in the last six and half years, saying the threat to continue with “his abrasive and contrived political empire is an empty threat from a drowning Governor”.
He wondered why the Governor still have the courage to speak on the political leadership of Kogi, “having used the common patrimony of Kogi to prosecute his failed ambition to rule Nigeria, the exercise that some Kogi delegates he so much boasted of did not even vote for him”.
“For a Governor, who does not have a grip of state delegates despite amassing them through forceful means, it is shameful and a huge embarrassment of our time. Rather than hiding his head in shame, he has decided to portray his usual folly.
“It is obvious that Yahaya Bello is in a political logjam, hence his utterances between now and the next political dispensation will be in form of a dirge, having betrayed his political benefactors both front and back in all areas.
“He is left with how to confront the anti-corruption agencies with his awaiting fraudulent cases and at the same time seeking for a political solution, soft landing and favour from the next dispensation, hence his thoughts of replaying the use of force and violence to achieve the next political arrangements in Kogi,” he said.
Engr Akpa warned government appointees and accomplices at all levels not to “mortgage their lives beyond their present predicaments of working in Governor Bello’s administration, that had made them vulnerable to anti graft agencies soon after they leave office.”
He stated that whoever attack or kill for politics, no matter how highly placed, will have him or herself blame in the next dispensation, saying nobody had monopoly of violence both within the Igala race and Kogi state as a whole.
The secretary urged the people of the state to remain unperturbed over the governor’s alleged threats, adding the era of using violence to win election is gone in Nigeria forever.
He called on President Muhammadu Buhari not to feign ignorance over the threats under the guise of retaining political power at all levels in Kogi state and Nigeria.
He said the Igala Vanguard will set the ball rolling to alert the international communities on the plans by the Governor to truncate the next political transition in Nigeria, saying Kogi Governor was already selling the ideas of violent approach to 2023 elections, not only in Kogi state, but across Nigeria.
