Bello: No Room for PDP in Kogi

Bello: No Room for PDP in Kogi

Kayode Fasua

Kogi State Governor, Mr. Yahaya Bello has sneered at a recent claim by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the party would oust him and enthrone “a people’s oriented-government” in the coming November governorship election.

PDP’s National Chairman, Uche Secondus, who spoke through the party’s spokesman, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, had made the vow that the party would trounce the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), while speaking at a recent meeting of the Kogi PDP caucus, which held in Abuja.

But replying Secondus, Bello said his administration had made achievements in the state, for which the people compensated it, as reflected in the results of recent elections held in Kogi.

Speaking through the Director General (Media and Publicity) of Yahaya Bello Campaign Organisation, Mr. Kingsley Fanwo, he said the opposition party is shocked by the support of the Kogi people to the party and the leadership of the governor, and can now only utter jabbers.”

Fanwo, in the statement, noted that Governor Bello had been tested and trusted in the almost four years of his rule and that this had been demonstrated through landmark victories recorded by the APC in by-elections and general elections held in the state.

“First were the Lokoja/Koto Federal Constituency by-elections last August, which the APC, led by Governor Bello, won with 26,860, nearly doubling the votes recorded by the PDP, which came second with 14,845.

“Second was the 2019 general election in which Kogi people delivered to the APC, led by Governor Yahaya Bello, over 95 percent of all the votes cast. President Muhammadu Buhari recorded 285,894 to defeat his main challenger, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who polled 218,207.”

The governor’s aide added that his principal and the APC went on to produce two senators out of three; seven House of Representatives members out of nine, and all the 25 State Assemblymen, describing such as an unprecedented record, “and the most devastating win by any party in any election in Kogi State.”

“Bello has grown the APC in Kogi State from about 50,000 registered members in 2016 to over 500,000 now. The ranks of the governing party have been expanded by almost the entire PDP structure in the state, whose members have been defecting in droves to support and endorse the governor’s re-election bid.”

Fanwo said apart from boosting industrial growth in Kogi State, the governor, contrary to rumours, is not owing workers 34 months’ salary.

“Currently, there is three months’ outstanding in the state, which is actually a carryover of the three months owed civil servants; with nine months owed teachers and 25 months of accumulated percentages owed local government workers, which actually spread over the past eight years. Even those inherited three months’ salaries are now being defrayed.

“Besides, Bello brought peace and security to Kogi State. From being the kidnap capital of the country when he came into office in 2016, Kogi is now rated the second most peaceful state in the country, and the most peaceful in the entire North, by the Nigerian Peace Index.

“The National Bureau of Statistics rates Kogi as the state with the second lowest crime rate in the country. These claims can easily be verified,” he clarified.

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