Kogi Equity Alliance (KEA) has examined the recent statement by the Kogi APC Renaissance Forum rejecting the appointment of Hon. Abdulazeez Idris King, and we affirm without hesitation that their concerns are not only valid but symptomatic of a far deeper, more dangerous political disease eating the soul of APC in Kogi State.
What the Forum described as ethnic bias, incompetence, and unilateral imposition is merely the latest manifestation of the destructive governance architecture created by Yahaya Bello and now shamelessly sustained by Governor Usman Ododo. The rejection of King’s appointment is not an isolated event — it is the inevitable outcome of a system built on nepotism, exclusion, and anti-party tyranny.
The Kogi Equity Alliance (KEA) is issuing this warning with the intensity of a fire alarm in a burning building: Yahaya Bello is killing APC in Kogi State, methodically, deliberately, and without shame. And the tragedy is not simply that he is destroying the party; it is that Abuja is watching this political homicide with folded arms while Bello and his marionette-governor, Usman Ododo, hack away at the very foundation of the party that gave them breath. What is happening in Kogi is not politics; it is not party strategy; it is not even incompetence. It is premeditated sabotage disguised as leadership.
Yahaya Bello left office, but his destructive spirit never left Lugard House. It sits there comfortably, dictating appointments, deciding who breathes politically, crushing those who disagree, excluding entire senatorial zones, and manufacturing ethnic supremacy as though Kogi were his ancestral private compound. And Ododo, instead of exorcising this political demon, has chosen to kneel before it like an obedient altar boy. What else explains the reckless imposition of Hon. Abdulazeez Idris King and the relentless concentration of critical offices in Okene, as if Kogi’s political oxygen is a family inheritance?
What kills a political party?
Not opposition. Not poverty. Not a lack of ideas. A party dies when one selfish man hijacks its structure. A party dies when loyalty is measured by tribal identity instead of competence. A party dies when internal dissent is silenced and brilliance is punished. A party dies when mediocrity becomes the only qualification for office. A party dies when a governor behaves like a security guard of a godfather instead of the leader of a state.
And a party collapses when its national leadership refuses to intervene while its state chapter is being turned into a funeral procession.
Under Yahaya Bello, APC in Kogi became a caricature of a party. The man ruled through threats, intimidation, propaganda, and the systematic cleansing of anyone whose loyalty did not flow directly into his pockets. He did not build the party — he terrorized it. He did not nurture talent — he destroyed it. He did not promote unity — he built a tribal empire that insults the intelligence of every politically awake citizen.
Look at the pattern:
He expelled, sidelined, frustrated, and humiliated Hon. James Abiodun Faleke’s loyalists because Faleke refused to bend his spine to him. Faleke is one of the most influential APC figures in North Central, yet Bello treated him as if he were a political apprentice from a strange village. His supporters were denied appointments, denied recognition, denied influence, and when they refused to bow, Bello weaponized state power to erase them from political relevance.
And as if that were not enough, Bello targeted the loyalists of Distinguished Senator Sunday Steve Karimi, a man whose integrity, intellect, and capacity threatened Bello’s brand of low-quality political management. Karimi’s loyalists were dismissed, shoved aside, blacklisted, or left hanging simply because Bello feared any figure he could not domesticate. People whose only “offense” was being principled were systematically removed. That is how parties die.
Now enter Ododo — Bello’s political photocopy — who has taken this demolition exercise to new heights. Instead of correcting Bello’s sins, he multiplies them. Instead of mending APC’s wounds, he scratches them open. Instead of balancing the political architecture of Kogi State, he is doubling down on the most reckless form of ethnic dominance ever witnessed in the state’s political history. Ododo’s administration looks less like a government and more like a continuation of Bello’s dynasty project: same mindset, same exclusions, same arrogance, same Okene-only orientation, same contempt for Kogi East, same disregard for Kogi West.
Let us put it sharply:
Bello is the architect of APC’s crisis in Kogi. Ododo is the maintenance officer of that crisis. Together they are building a political graveyard where APC may soon be buried if Abuja does not wake up.
Abuja APC must investigate the terrifying pattern of anti-party behavior coming out of Kogi. No sane leadership should watch a single man destroy the electoral survival of a state chapter, especially a state that is crucial for President Tinubu’s 2027 prospects. Kogi East and Kogi West — the zones that deliver APC’s votes — are being treated like conquered territories. Bello’s political philosophy is simple: “If it is not from me, it must not exist.” That kind of narcissism is fatal to any party.
How does a former governor fight the emergence of President Tinubu at the primaries, undermine the northern consensus, contribute one of the lowest votes in the North Central, and still act like the landlord of the President’s political structure in Kogi? Only in a moral circus like the one Bello built. Ododo’s attempt to impose a politically insignificant individual as the Renewed Hope Ambassador is not just foolish — it is sabotage dressed as loyalty.
This is why KEA is shouting this warning with the fury of a man watching his house being set on fire by the very guard paid to protect it. Yahaya Bello is destroying APC, and Ododo is helping him dig the grave. Abuja must intervene. Abuja must investigate. Abuja must dismantle Bello’s shadow empire. If APC wants to survive 2027 in Kogi, it must break free from this suffocating grip of one man’s ego and his successor’s cowardice.
KEA stands firmly for a rebalanced, just, equitable, and competent APC in Kogi State. We refuse to be silent while a party built by many is destroyed by two. We refuse to let Bello’s tyranny metastasize into APC’s obituary. And we refuse to watch Ododo kneel to a man whose political selfishness has become a national embarrassment.
This fight is for the soul of APC. And KEA is fully prepared.
– Yusuf Muhammad writes from Kogi state.
