I would not have ordinarily responded to the childish rejoinder to my post over an opinion I expressed on the many lies of Governor Bello on the Channels TV, Sunrise Daily, of December 23, 2020, especially from an uninformed, unknown attention-seeker called Issa Itopa Lucky, but I am constrained to respond to his puke based on three reasons.
One, the attention-seeking gourmand does not know the thick line between opinion writers, news reporters and the media through which their opinions and news are expressed or conveyed. There is a marked difference between a piece of news item a newspaper company publishes and the opinion expressed by the reader(s)/writer(s).
It is true that though I used the Observers Times newspaper as a channel through which my opinion was published, the views, facts and comments were completely and solely mine. The opinion expressed in the article did not apply to Observers Times, its publishers or its affiliates, and they are not held liable by the outcome of my opinion. I am not one of the journalists of the newspaper company; it is uncharitable therefore to expect the newspaper or its publishers to subject my own personal opinion to any form of unwholesome scrutiny.
I would have held the publishers liable of bias, prejudice and favouritism, if they had tried to obliterate any part of my writing or shield any public figure I mentioned in my article that I believed to have lived a bad political life from pillory.
Itopa Lucky ignorantly crossed the borderline to have dragged the person and personality of Mr Austin Usman Okai or his newspaper through the mud over an opinion I expressed and hold liable.
Two, I feel greatly insulted, humiliated and disdained, capable of leading me to sue Itopa Lucky for giving my dignity and integrity a reductive nomenclature as an attack-dog. I am a responsible citizen, doing a decent and responsible job. I do not feed on the crumbles from the tables of political office holders, or defend them to feed my family or myself.
Three, thuggery was an alien word in the vocabulary of Igala people’s dictionary until – between 2003 and 2011 – Ibrahim Idris (Ibro) became the governor of the state. Ibro deliberately incubated, hatched and fed the miscreants called thugs and used them to fight his political enemies. This is no social media allegation. It is everywhere.
I am not a supporter of any political party, but I want to say a few things about Ibro’s activities in PDP, based on Itopa’s comment, that led to the defeat of PDP in Kogi State from my personal recollection as a media virtuoso.
First, PDP lost not because it had no viable candidate during the election, but because Ibro and his son colluded with the APC candidate, Governor Yahaya Bello, to rig the election. Thuggery in Igala land was the brain grandchild of Ibro government’s creation. Many young boys of promising future lost their lives in Ejule and Anyigba because of Ibro’s bad leadership quality. The people are still counting their losses, and parents are still nursing their pains, thanks to Ibro’s thuggery. Ibro may not find it funny if he sets his feet on Ejule ground today.
Ibro’s activities before and during the 2019 election gave Governor Bello the impetus to resort to use of thugs to kill, maim, burn, scare and chase the electorate, especially in Igala land to win election. That practice was akin to what Ibro was wont to doing when he used to be the governor of Kogi State.
All these facts point to the fact that Ibro and his son’s anti-party prostitution and indecent political activities led to the unwholesome defeat of PDP in 2019.
Second, Ibro and his son continued to give the PDP and its candidate, Engineer Musa Wada, a debilitating war of attrition even after the election in order to give Governor Bello who was facing election tribunal case (as Engineer Wada) the power to win because Ibro’s son lost in the PDP primary election held earlier. The story about Ibro’s greedy, lethal and destructive politics is in the public domain.
It was easier for Itopa Lucky to deny the many filths of Ibro and to defend his infamous activities because he did not live in Igala land to suffer the same misfortune as we did. Itopa Lucky can also defend Ibro because his means of livelihood depends solely on Ibro or his family. It is therefore understandable that he should defend his meals. Any sane person will do that.
I want to categorically inform Itopa Lucky that I am available for any action, with available facts online, in books and in newspapers, that may arise as a result of my personal views on the dangerous and inhuman activities of Ibro in Kogi State in general, and in Igala land in particular.
– Odih Daniel Nuhu, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Email: odih4sure@gmail.com
Twitter: @GreatDanito
