Head of media and publicity, Kogi State PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Comrade Usman Austin Okai has described Wednesday presidential rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lokoja, the Kogi state capital, as a deep shame.
In a press statement, Okai berated the ruling party for failing to campaign along the lines of verifiable achievements and strong evidences of their legacies to Nigerians and Kogi people.
He noted that President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor of the state, Alhaji Yahaya Bello campaigned on blank promises despite being in power for over three years.
“We offer our heartfelt sympathy to the Kogi State chapter of the All Progressives’ Congress over the outcome of the rally organized for their presidential candidate, outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The council notes that the hallmark of the rally was the irredeemable disgrace, deep shame and monumental embarrassment that came along with the inability of outgoing President Buhari and the equally outgoing Governor, Yahaya Adoza Bello to campaign along the lines of verifiable achievements and strong evidences of their legacies to Nigerians and Kogi people.
“It is for the records that the council considers it crucial to inform Nigerians that never before in the history of Africa have an incumbent President attended a rally in a state and campaigned on blank promises despite being in power for not less than three and half years prior the date of the rally.
“Ordinarily, expectations would be high with people filing out to welcome a president deserving of honor in a state controlled by His party. It is only shameful that the reverse was the case in Kogi State.
“We strongly condemn the erosion of the core values on which every state is built because we in the PDP hold strongly to the fact education is the bedrock of modernization.
“It is for this purpose that we consider it primitive and savagery for the APC in Kogi State to forcefully shut down tertiary institutions in the state as means of compelling students to attend a rally in show of solidarity to a president who considers the activities of members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities a distraction to His bed rest and access to comic relief and cartoons.
“We draw his attention to the reduced standards of living in Kogi State and the inability of the state government to pay wages for which billions of Naira were claimed.
“We also challenge the Kogi State government to open a discussion on the activities of a killer squad that is currently on loose in Kogi State, summarily executing opposition voices in the wee hours of the morning.
“The entire world is aware that the PDP and it’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar GCON have been campaigning on only issues which directly impact Nigerians.
“Nigerians are not in the dark about our foreign policy direction or our proposed solution to rejuvenating the local economy. Nigerians are fully away of specific commitments we have made on education, job creation, national security, trade, youth empowerment and even restructuring.
We task the APC to borrow a leaf from us and for once, at least, pretend to be interested in the well being of Nigerians.
“We urge Kogi people to completely ignore the dance of shame the APC embarked on yesterday because the existence of a cumulative debt portfolio of N125B in a state that does not have any project worth more than N20M anywhere on earth remains the 8th wonder of the human race.
“We remind the people of Kogi State that besides outgoing Governor Yahaya Adoza Bello and members of His gang of bloodshot eyed looters, not a single leader of thought in Kogi State is a party to their dance of shame as the whole world saw yesterday.
“We also remind Kogi people that the Ojo Enesi family of Okene are currently mourning the death of their breadwinner whose life was cut short by the bullets of assassins funded by a member of the state cabinet.
“We further remind Kogi people of the 93,482 graduates tertiary institutions in Kogi State have produced since 2015 who have no hope of getting jobs or receiving sustainable empowerment.
“We remind Kogi people once again that whereas all roads in Lokoja inner city metropolis are designed by potholes of various shapes, sizes and deepness, between 2015 and date, outgoing governor, Yahaya Bello has spent at least, a staggering N12.1B acquiring the latest Range Rover, Toyota Landcruiser, Lexus, Mercedes G-Wagon, Ford Explorer all of which are armored and custom made while two units of the 2018 Rolls Royce Phantom are due to arrive the shores of Nigeria in the first quarter of this year.
“We equally remind Kogi people that in the last 3 years, the rate of deaths by suicide have soared in the state starting from the civil service where a director took His own life by hanging over a refusal of the government to pay him. We will not forget to remind Kogi people that the only capital project embarked on and successfully completed to taste by the current governor is his private home in Okene GRA and His official residence in Lokoja where luxury beds, dining tables and cooking pots were purchased at the cost of $370,000.00C, $85,000.00C and $19,000.00C respectively.
“We finally remind the people of Kogi State that the Kogi State Governor is the single reason why the Ajaokuta Steel company with a capacity to employ not less than 200,000 direct and indirect workers has remained comatose,” the statement read.
Okai called on President Buhari and Kogi APC to put an end to the grandstanding and give a detailed list of its achievements in Kogi State on a sector by sector basis.
