Kogi Central SDP senatorial candidate, Barr. Natasha Akpoti has declared that no life in Ebira land is worth shedding for the re-election ambition of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Natasha made the declaration on Saturday when she visited the family house of her supporter, Ojo Enesi who was killed by suspected APC thugs.
She urged her supporters to remain calm as she will forward a petition to the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Kpotum Idris, giving him an ultimatum to arrest all persons that were involved in the killing, starting with the Administrator of Okehi local government council, Hon. Joseph Salami.
She accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of plots to launch a reign of violence in Kogi Central to avoid the February senatorial election.
“People of Obeiba, my heart is very heavy. I am very very devastated. I did everything possible to avoid this situation. For the past few months, I have written several petitions to the IG (Inspector General) of Police. In the last three, four days, when I heard about the violence they were planning, I heard about the violence that APC Kogi state were planning, I drew the attention of the Governor (Yahaya Bello) but he called my bluff. I told the governor, that I learnt he had plans to kill me and that he had plans to kill my supporters. I told him that I have proof.
“Look at what we are having right now, at 11pm last night at the house of Deedat, the Commissioner for water resources, a vehicle was parked and there was ammunition. Guns were taken out of the car with some police uniforms taken into his house. We called the attention of the Area Commander, Mr. Adegoke Rufus and he said we shouldn’t worry, that probably the APC is trying to protect themselves from us in SDP. I said, no. We don’t have anything, no guns, no authorities, no powers. We have God though.
“At 1 am, I started receiving distress calls that there were gunshots, that APC thugs were going from house to house shooting and harassing my supporters. Those we could call on the phone, we call that they should run away. Unfortunately, it was in the process of Enesi running out to safety that he was killed. I called the DPO, he didn’t pick up. I called the Area Commander, he didn’t pick up. I called the DPO Okene, he picked up. He told me Okene was a different jurisdiction, that he was going to do his best in calling the DPO in charge of Okehi. Later on, the DPO called me telling me that he called severally but the DPO Okehi wasn’t picking. I called so many people. I had to call the Commissioner of Police in Cross River around 2 am. The commissioner of police in Cross River had to call the DPO in Okene again and said, you know what, we now it is not your jurisdiction but send in people, that there is a political attack happening here.
“We tried everything, I have not slept since midnight and I am so so upset. But I will say something, the death of Ojo Enesi will not go in vain. It will not go in vain. He died purely and solely for the cause of seeing that our land is liberated. I don’t think anybody should be killed because of politics.
“Ojo has a wife, she is pregnant. This is his mother, we just saw the father in there. I don’t think leadership should include taking lives because if you become a leader without the people then you are not a leader.
“I know I could be the next. “It was in the office of Deedat on the first week of this month, a few people and one man named Designage (Wahab Jimoh from Obeiba here), he was also there, and they all planned, (he was passing on the instruction of the Governor) that from January, they must escalate violence to a point that instead for them to lose, instead for the APC to lose the senatorial election, it is better to have such violence that INEC will have to cancel the election. That is the plan.
“As much as our hearts burn, we will not go back to them in violence. No. We will show them that we are peace-loving people. We know, as much as our hearts are bleeding now, if we retaliate more lives will be lost .
“We will tell President Buhari, that as much as we love him, we love ourselves too. As much as President Buhari loves his son (Yahaya Bello), she (late Enesi’s mother) loves her son too. And nobody’s life in Ebira land is worth President Buhari’s ambition. We will rather have ourselves here alive and well than to die for his ambition. I am sorry to say, that is the truth. So, for our governor to think that saving his name before the President is worth all of us, no, that’s a big joke.
“We are peace loving and we are going to put a petition. This time around, we are going to give time limit to the IG of Police to arrest everybody responsible for the death of Ojo Enesi starting from the sole administrator of Okehi local government. We know those who are perpetrating these violence, we will not be quiet anymore,” she said.
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