By Frank Momoh
Two Former Deputy Governors: Benue State, Alhaji Sule Iyaji, former Kogi State, Deputy Governor, Elder Simon Achuba and other critical Kogi East stakeholders have expressed worry over the ‘forced courtesy visit’ of Kogi State traditional rulers and elders orchestrated by the Steel Development Minister, Alh. Shuaibu Audu, to President Bola Tinubu.
The Kogi East stakeholders warned the Minister, the Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Usman Ododo and the immediate past Governor Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to desist from using every clandestine move to thwart and sabotage the ongoing Kogi election tribunal.
In an emergency meeting held on Tuesday in Abuja, to review raging issues of serious concern to the Kogi state, said such move are capable of derailing democracy and causing unimaginable upheavals and destruction of the fragile unity being enjoyed in the state.
Addressing the media, Iyaji, said the Kogi East stakeholders noted in particular the clandestine activities of the Minister of Steel Development, Alhaji Shuaibu Audu and other individuals, for their selfish and parochial political reasons who are bent on dragging the revered elders and traditional rulers in the state into the murky waters of politics.
The former Benue State deputy governor, said: “The stakeholders observed that the Minister of Steel Developments in a desperate bid to please his godfather, former Governor Yahaya Bello, is not willing to give democracy a chance since his humiliating defeat and rejection of his Principal, Alhaji Usman Ododo, by the good people of Kogi East and entire Kogi state, at the last Nov 11, 2023, governorship election in the state.”
According to Iyaji, Audu’s recent abrasive gatherings of elders and traditional rulers, using the instrumentality of the state, to force them on a “courtesy visit” to Tinubu, is a recipe for chaos and disharmony in our land.
Expressing worry over the ‘Forced courtesy visit’ the Stakeholders averred that it is highly suspicious and laden with fraud, adding that the stakeholders noted that they are aware of the discomfort in Bello/Ododo camps since the unimpeachable evidences of massive vote riggings as being revealed by the display of BVAS at the ongoing trial at the Kogi State governorship election tribunal and the panic reactions that trailed it.
He said: “The kernel of the planned fraudulent courtesy visit to Mr. President, with the Minister of steel Development, being a pawn in the hands of Bello and Ododo, is to assemble our elders and traditional rulers to go and plead with Mr. President to thwart and torpedo the judicial process in favour of Ododo.”
The former deputy governor, alleged that the so called fraudsters have been intimidating court witnesses and bragging about their connections that would make the tribunal processes of no consequence, as according to them, the decision over the election will not be determined at the tribunal.
However, the stakeholders observed the futility of such clandestine visit and moves in deference to Mr. President, who, they said has been a leading vanguard of democracy and a tested veteran of democratic struggles, long before he was elected as the President.
They averred that President Tinubu, will never succumb to such evil and anti-democratic actions.
The stakeholders further observed that they are aware that the guise under which the Minister is mobilizing the ill-willed visit to Mr. President, is to thank him for his appointment, and to canvas for his intervention in the infrastructure gaps in Kogi East, adding that the real reason is to use the visit to plead for Ododo, who has failed woefully to defend the mandate he forcefully took from Murtala Yakubu Ajaka the Social Democratic Party candidate in court.
He said: “The critical stakeholders noted that the people of Kogi east expressed their collective wishes in the election of Alhaji Murtala Yakubu Ajaka in the November election. Hence any representation of the people of Kogi East to any quarter without Alhaji Muri Ajaka or his appointed representatives, is null and void and of no effect.
“The Stakeholders further noted the unwarranted attacks on SDP witnesses at the ongoing governorship election tribunal wherein the properties of the witnesses in Okene have been burnt to arches by thugs loyal to the former Governor Bello and Governor Usman Ododo.
“This appalling brigand had continued unabated thus aiming to truncate the petition of the SDP candidate at the tribunal. That the Federal government should intervene and stop this witness harassment being tele-guided by Bello and Ododo to subvert the cause of justice.”