Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State will be battling with some powerful forces in the coming governorship election in the state.
Bello is a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and he will be running for a second term in office, as other first term governors normally do, barring any changes.
Meanwhile, other politicians are eying the seat of power in the Confluence State. One of them, a Kogi state-born security expert, Joseph Ameh, has promised to re-write the story of his state by letting his people and other Kogi residents enjoy the dividends of democracy if he emerges governor, The Guardian reports.
In an interview with The Guardian in Lagos, the managing director of Real Strikers Security Services, who is aspiring to occupy Lugard House through the Peoples Democracy Party (PDP) in the November governorship election, said his people are suffering under the Yaya Bello government. He promised to run an inclusive government devoid of discrimination along party, religious or ethnic lines.
Ameh affirmed that everyone in Kogi needs an enabling environment to succeed; hence he pledged to build institutions that would empower the people. He disclosed that even without being in government, he had created about 10,000 jobs through his security outfit. He expressed disappointment over the conduct of the recent general elections, which was marred by violence and malpractices, despite all the measures put in place to forestall them.
In another development, Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has opened the can of worms on the main opposition party in the state.
Governor Okorocha fired back at the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), accusing the party of embarking on “systematic and violent looting” of the state. The PDP and some concerned Imo citizens had accused Okorocha and some members of his family of embarking on looting spree of some state government-owned property.
In a stern response through a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, yesterday, the governor said the PDP had adopted various unconventional tactics to plunder the state’s assets. The statement said: “We want to inform the general public and Imo people in particular that members of the PDP in the state have embarked on systematic and violent looting of properties owned by the state and brought or installed by Governor Okorocha. In doing that, they have adopted various unconventional tactics.
“They have removed most of the solar street lights and other beauteous installations in the state capital. They have removed expensive seats kept in public buildings. They have also begun to snatch official cars especially from the women appointees. And they operate mostly at night.“They have formed themselves into Property Recovery Committees and task forces and they claim to have been set up and inaugurated by Chief Emeka Ihedioha, who was declared winner of the March 9, 2019, governorship election in the state.”
Okorocha alleged that the party had robbed innocent citizens of their belongings, noting that its members do not believe in orderliness. “Having stayed out of power for eight years, they behave like dead people who have been resurrected from death. The only problem is that they have deployed their own excitement into looting,”he added.
Okorocha still opposes the victory of Ihedioha in the just concluded governorship election in the state. He insists that his son-in-law Uche Nwosu won the contest.
Nwosu had vowed to challenge Ihedioha’s victory in court.
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