The Kogi State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has condemned in strong terms what it termed “the ignoble role played by Gov. Yahaya Bello in the just concluded Ekiti State Governorship election held at the weekend.”
In a statement issued and signed by Achadu Dickson, Director Research and Documentation, on Sunday, the party lamented the Governor’s penchant for using state resources to fund elections in other states since his assumption in 2016.
The party recalled how the governor expanded the state’s resources in Edo, Anambra and now in Ekiti State, lamented a situation where Kogi state workers and pensioners were being ‘owed salaries, pension and gratuities between eight and thirty months, yet the Governor finds it expedient to fund elections by playing the role of a father Christmas when Kogi citizens.”
The PDP equally frowned at a situation where the governor was alleged to have purchased and donated cars to community leaders of Kogi extractions in Ekiti state, thus wasting state resources all in the attempt to help the APC win election.
More worrisome, the Kogi state PDP pointed out was the governor’s alleged involvement in hiring about 78 thugs from the State to Ekiti in buses.
The party wondered how a man who ordinarily should have been a chief security officer, now becomes a man moving about with thugs.
“Kogi PDP, therefore, observed that the reported cases of ballot box snatching and violence which was the hallmark that characterized the Ekiti state governorship election is the brainchild of the importation of thugs by the governor. Among the thugs he so ferried to Ekiti are many have been arrested for disruption of electoral process .
“Kogi state PDP, therefore, described the state as sitting on a time bomb if a governor whose sole and main responsibilities is a protection of lives and properties now engages in breeding thugs, a tool he has used for elections in other states since he became governor.
“While there is a very important need to carry out a thorough investigation on the role of the governor in his alleged withdrawal of N750million on the eve of the Ekiti State governorship election and his role in the movement of thugs, the Kogi State Chapter of the PDP Calls on the relevant agencies to do the needful in unraveling the governor’s culpability in the matter.
“PDP make bold to say the deaspiration by Gov. Yahaya Bello to be in the good books of the APC by milking the state dry of her resources when workers are committing suicide due to hunger and poverty, with several months of unpaid salaries for workers and pensioners.
“Nothing would stop the Kogi state people from effecting the change of leadership come 2019 for the people know who is behind their sufferings and insecurity in the state,” the statement added.
