Kogi Governorship: “We will resist any ragtag stooge” Igala Youths send clear message to Bello

Igala Youths in the Eastern and Central Senatorial District have vowed to resist imposition of Ododo Ahmed Usman, a cousin of Yahaya Bello as governor of Kogi State.

In a statement by the Speaker of the group that operates under the aegis of Igala Youths Leaders Association, IYLA, Dr. Ojoachele Akor Felix, which was obtained by CAPITAL POST on Tuesday, declared Yahaya Bello a complete tribal bigot, and a failure, adding that his stooge which he want to force down the throat of Kogi people was part of catastrophe rocking Kogi State.

The statement read on full:

“Governance is all about the well-being of the people. But in kogi state, under GYB, it’s a tale of terror, horror, impunity, and the use of brute force against a section of the public with perceived political difference.

“We have seen this perfidious and Janus-faced trends played out by Yahaya Bello as Kogi state governor since assumption of office; January 27, 2016.

“It might interest the public to note that Yahaya Bello never won election in the state but was forcefully imposed on the good people of the state against their wishes by the power that be after the passing away of former governor, Prince Abubakar Audu, who was coasting home to victory.

“This singular misnomer paved the way for Bello’s emergence as the new Adolf Hitler of the state.

“His draconian hammer nailed the civil servants in his two years through endless screenings, shattering homes with salary reductions and abuse of human dignity.

“This was followed by shoddy, nepotic, sectional, and ethnic appraisal and reappraisal that saw his kinsmen as the leading and highly placed civil servants in Kogi state while reducing Igala and others, creating one of the most notorious artificial redundancy with the ensuing punitive approaches.

“Several lives were lost and families rendered hopeless and homeless through his nihilistic and anti-peoples policies in the state.

“In 2019, even when there was nothing to celebrate in his first tenure, Yahaya Bello contested for the renewal of his term of office in what could be described as one of the most catastrophic elections in the history of the state and Nigeria.

“Yahaya Bello came down hard with iron darts on the leading Igala aspirants, frustrating and destroying their chances of winning the primary election that produced him as sole candidate afterward!

“The Igala people watched with keen interest and kept mute while it lasted.

“The governorship election eventually came and Yahaya Bello showed the Hitler in him with all manner of attacks, killing and maiming our people. Houses were burnt down and the lives of our people became nothing to him, but as mere flies!

“He rigged the election in the central by manipulating the entire processes in his favour. Alas, Okene got the highest number of cooked-up votes in that election with fictitious cog undesirably colluding in naked and self styled assault.

“While INEC looked the other way in collusion, the security agencies were also in cahoots with the devious games that played out.

“Bello won the election with blood stains on his hands begging and crying for justice, sadly never to come till eternity.

“In the face of this, GYB has shown himself more of a crude and queer reprobate than an unrepentant stubborn fellow.

“Having mastered the cynically crooked and shadily propelled political dubiety, Yahaya Bello started the obvious naked show of shame, treating our people with disdain and resentiments.

“The bastardization and balkanisation of traditional stools across the state took turns in one of the most horrible dimensions with common Madaki from the central being awarded First and Second Class Statuses with impunity!

“His penchant for hatred for Igala people was loud and could be felt through his body language, actions, and deeds in all facets of the economy.

“We watched this and kept mute still.

“When he invited President Muhammadu Buhari to the state for project commissioning, there was none in Igala land to be commissioned despite the fact that he had since begun to draw the 13 percent derivations on Ibaji Oil from FAAC on a monthly basis.

“In the wake of the 2023 general election, it was gathered that he was going to hand over power to his kinsmen.

“In what looks like a scripted drama on April 14, 2023, Bello displayed his pernicious ignorance by threatening party members to vote his cousin, a questionably and opaque retired Auditor-General of Local Hovernments; Ahmed Usman Ododo, as preferred candidate. He ensured that his threats actually became laws in the state.

‘At this juncture, we believe that what is true about GYB’s notorious government in Kogi State is equally true, mutatis mutandi, of an Ododo good governance in the state.”

The stated their positions:

‘That the APC has failed woefully in kogi state within the last 8 years of GYB’s obnoxious and suffocative sectional and debilitating government.

“That GYB has declared war against the Igala nation and should be ready to prosecute same without any further delay.

“That as the majority ethnic group in Kogi state, we won’t allow political maggoteries to hold us by the jugular in the name of power sharing as we will resist this with our votes against the APC in the November 2023 election.

“INEC and other government agencies must exercise restraints in their criminal roles to suppress the resolve of the Igala people.

“GYB cannot and will never be allowed to impose his ragtag stooge on the good people of Kogi state with his pharisaical dissimulation and clairvoyance that is akin to the devil’s punch.

“We call on the federal government to, as a matter of urgency, call Bello to order as we shall resist him and his APC house of commotion.”