POLITICS
Kogi Guber: SDP Raises the Alarm Over Planned Attack on Supporters
From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
As Campaigns for the November Governorship polls begins in Kogi state, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), has raised the alarm over planned attack on supporters of the party in Kogi Local Government Area of the state.
Muritala Yakubu Ajaka Campaign Organization in a statement made available to Journalists at the weekend, accused Governor Yahaya Bello of plans to attack supporters of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Kogi local government area of the state.
Director of Communications of the Campaign Team, Faruk Adejoh-Audu said “the diabolic plot is in response to the mass defection of APC members in Kogi (Koto) LGA in the last one week during which majority of the APC ward chairmen, a former State Assembly Member and even his own Special Advisers announced their rejection of the party and declared support for SDP governorship candidate, Alhaji Murtala Ajaka.
”Adejoh-Audu said faced with mass rejection leading to a gale of defections from the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State, Governor Yahaya Bello has recruited the state Commissioner of Police, Onuoha Bethrand to unleash a campaign of intimidation on supporters of Ajaka.
“We are privy to a conspiracy by the Kogi Police Commissioner, Mr Berthrand Onuoha and Mr Bello to frame-up SDP members in Kogi Local Government Area with all manners of trumped-up offences to enable him embark on a mass crack down of our supporters this weekend.
“One Bashir Gegu, a notorious thug hired by Mr Bello as aide, according to our our information, has supplied a roll call of major supporters of Alhaji Ajaka to Mr Unuoha the Commissioner of Police who is set to deploy a squad of policemen supported by Bello’s thugs led by the said Gegu to begin invading Kogi LGA from this night.
“We are shocked that the new commissioner of police posted to Kogi after his predecessor connived with Bello to engage in extra judicial killings last June has also succumbed to the lure of the Governor to attack innocent citizens.
“The immediate past commissioner of police Mr
Adeshina Yusuf had on June 22, this year invaded Ejule in Kogi East while decent people slept, with policemen, Naval personel and a gang of thugs to kill a defenceless woman Mrs Atima , and Alhaji Kabir Bala alias Okwo, a known political ally and former thug of Mr Bello who had renounced violence and declared support for Alhaji Ajaka.
“The police who hitherto provided security for Okwo while he did the bidding of Bello turned around to accuse of him of terrorism after his extra- judicial execution.
“It is disgraceful that Adeshina’s replacement Mr Onuoha who has obstinately refused to arrest Bello’s thugs who burnt down the state office of the SDP and other violent crimes, even after we sent a petition and clearly identified the criminals supported by video evidence, is now eager to crack down on innocent citizens because of their political choice.
“Even attacks against our supporters in broad daylight across the state particularly in Kogi East and videos released by Bello’s aides and even an LGA Chairman threatening violence against voters had been ignored by this police commissioner.
“Rather he is making himself available for a desperate Yahaya Bello to use in criminalizing political participation by clamping our supporters into detention or possibly execute them to intimidate others to enable the governor have a field day in imposing his puppet candidate on November 11, 2023 when the governorship elections hold,” he said.
Adejoh-Audu called on the Inspector of Police, the Police Service Commission and the minister for police affairs to step in and save the state.
“We invite the world to note that even our candidate was been hunted by this same security chiefs at the pleasure of Mr Bello until we secured a court order before he exercise his liberty to campaign as a governorship candidate!
“We like to point out that the actions of these security accomplices who are engaged in intimidating and attacking our supporters at the behest of Mr Bello is a menacing threat to the survival of our democracy
“No outlaw hiding under gubernatorial immunity must be allowed to procure security officers of the state to attack, kill or incarcerate his opponents to gain advantage in an electoral contest. That is exactly what Mr Bello has perfected in Kogi State and we appeal that the Federal Government of Nigeria protect our rights to participate in the political process as free citizens of Nigeria.
“Our country cannot afford the luxury of looking the other way while Kogi keeps following with blood of innocent persons and gross human rights abuse every election year for Bello to snatch victory in spite of the rejection of the people,” Adejoh-Audu added.
He advised SDP supporters to be calm and peaceful while the campaign organization explore the civilised due process of the law to save them from the rampage of Gov. Bello and his security accomplices.
Adejoh-Audu said the campaign organization has already approached its lawyers, Messrs Femi Falana SAN, to immediately commence legal actions against the commissioner of police to protect the right of SDP candidate and his supporters to freely participate in the democratic process without fear of harm.
The Abia Chapter of the INEC Staff Welfare Association (ISWA) has warned its members to uphold the integrity of the commission and guard against the culture of manipulating election results.
The Abia Chairman of the association, Mr Collins Eze, gave the advice at the group’s general meeting and end-of-year party in Umuahia.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen on the sideline of the ceremony, Eze said that the staff members were adequately aware of their enormous responsibility and should ensure free, fair and credible elections.
He said: “We have also told our colleagues that anywhere they find themselves they should make sure that they do the needful by ensuring transparency in the conduct of elections.
“We have always told them not to allow anybody to induce them with money to manipulate election results.
“I’m happy that they have been building the capacity of our colleagues on election processes.
“So, in the coming years, we won’t have any problem in ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections.”
He said that the end-of-year party was special as it afforded them the opportunity “to wine and dine together as well as thank God for sustaining them in 2024”.
Eze said that his leadership had introduced various means of assisting members in dire financial needs by providing platforms to solicit suppory for them.
He expressed gratitude to members for their support and cooperation, describing them as the “secret behind the success of this administration”.
He said that 34 of at least 350 staff members of the commission in the state retired from service in 2024.
According to him, the development has placed a huge financial burden on the association, in terms of their welfare and entitlement as members.
Report says that each member received a carton of tomato paste as Christmas gift from the association. (NAN)
A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be thankful to God that its 16-year administration was not probed by the successive APC-led governments.Okechukwu stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, while reacting to a statement by PDP congratulating Ghanaians for the conduct of free, fair and transparent general elections.
Report says that PDP had, in a statement, said that the verdict of the people of Ghana in the presidential election was a signal to the APC that its days were numbered. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, had said in the statement that the power of the people in Nigeria, just like in Ghana, would ‘surely prevail and end the APC’s oppressive rule’.This, he said, would “return Nigeria to the path of good governance, security, political stability and economic prosperity on the platform of the PDP in 2027.”However, in his reactions to Ologunagba’s statement, Okechukwu said that the PDP clan should thank God that former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu, out of sheer statesmanship, had refused to probe ‘the 16 locus years of PDP administrations’.Okechukwu, a former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), described the 16 years of PDP administrations as ones full of squandering and lack of plan.He said that Nigeria had yet to recover from the humongous culture of impunity and trust deficit planted by PDP on the Nigerian soil.Okechukwu said corruption was among the culture of impunity, saying it governed the privatisation of Nigeria’s electricity value chain, a key element in the country’s industrialisation drive.“Another is the blatant rigging of the 2007 general elections which the foremost beneficiary, President Umaru Yar’Adua, out of good conscience and noble magnanimity, publicly acknowledged the malfeasance which characterised his victory,” he said.Okechukwu also mentioned what he called conscienceless sale of the legislative and ministerial quarters, the annual rentage of which, he said, was bleeding the country’s treasury.“Another one is the neglect of $23 billion Greenfield Refinery, which could have saved over $70 billion expended on importation of refined petroleum products and which simulated the economic hardship of today,” he said.On why, for nine years, the APC administration could not fix those challenges, he recalled the efforts made by the Buhari administration to reopen talks on the Greenfield Refinery which, according to him, the Chinese regrettably rebuffed.The former VON director-general said that Nigerians were not in a hurry to forget the deliberate breach of the rotational convention of president from the north to the south.He said that the country could not also forget the utter disregard for Section 7 of the PDP’s constitution which expressly mandated zoning.Okechukwu advised the PDP not to insult the sensibilities of Nigerians by assuming that citizens would easily forget how they were put in the harms way.He said that PDP should thank God that Buhari and Tinubu did not want to probe them, adding “that’s why Nigerians cannot decipher the difference between the two political parties.” (NAN)
Sen. Ned Nwoko (PDP-Delta) says that Local Government Administration is central to democracy in Nigeria as it ensures grassroots governance and service delivery at the local level.This is contained in a statement signed by Dr Michael Nwoko, the Chief of Staff to the lawmaker in Abuja on Monday.Nwoko said this on the occasion of the presentation of an award “Icon of Hope” to him by the Association of Local Government Vice Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGOVC).
He was represented by his Chief of Staff. He said that the importance of local government administration in the country could not be overemphasised, as it was the bedrock of democracy.According to him, local governments in Nigeria play key roles in the country’s democracy by promoting participatory democracy, providing services, and representing citizens.“Local Governments help determine local needs and how to meet them. They also act as a link between the centre, state, and local people.“They are created to decentralise power and bring the government closer to the people. They perform both mandatory and concurrent functions.“It is in view of this that I took it upon myself to enhance the viability of local governments through the Paris and London club loan refunds,”he said.Dr Folashade Olabanji-Oba, ALGOVC National Chairman, while presenting the award at its 7th Annual National Conference, said the award was in recognition of the lawmaker’s significant contributions to strengthening local government administration.She highlighted Nwoko’s critical role in ensuring the Paris and London Club loan refunds, a financial breakthrough she said enhanced the capacity of local governments nationwide.(NAN)
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