Richard Elesho/ Lokoja
A Socio-cultural Group in Kogi State, Ujache Igala’ has accused Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello of being the brain behind late minister, James Ocholi’s non replacement seven months after his demise for political reasons.
Reacting to a press chat with journalists in Lokoja by Bello’s Director General of Media and Publicity, Kingsley Fanwo describing the group’s protest to the Villa last Thursday as antics of jobless people, who were carrying out vested interests of some unscrupulous politicians, the group explained, the state governor was surreptitiously working against appointing Igala into the federal executive council to ensure no one could challenge his misdeeds at that level.
In a press release issued by the group’s head of Media and Publicity, Atek’Ojo Samson Usman, it urged Kogi State governor to be tolerant, insisting that the peaceful protest was in the interest of the people of the state which is enshrined in the constitution particularly when it was obvious that all appointments made so far by Buhari led administration have not captured anyone from the Eastern Senatorial flank of the state.
“Alhaji Yahaya Bello was deliberately working against appointment of Igala person as Minister, so that he can have a field day, each time he goes to the villa where he continue to shield his misdeeds,” the leader said.
“The peaceful protest to the Villa was to draw attention of President Buhari that Kogi was being marginalised ‘that there was no replacement of a minister in the federal executive council FEC, seven months after’, so why is Bello panicking, the statement added.
The statement reminded the governor that appointment of a minister who would sit in FEC was a constitutional right of a state, hence, his utterances that Kogi was not in a hurry to own a minister was a display of ignorance of statutory books and the workings of participatory democracy, urging that those involved in day-to-day running of the state should learn fast.
It further condemned divide and rule tactics of the state governor, stressing that a situation where the governor visits Aso Rock with his personal interest on the right hand, and that of state matters on the left and when his personal interest fails, he would present that of the state was a disservice to Kogites.
They urged him to be magnanimous with providence that brought him to power as his style of leadership, particularly his sacrificial of the major tribe in the state on the altar of self interest has cracked the state more than ever in the last 25 years of the past administrations.
“When late Audu died, it took a week to name Bello as a replacement which the legal conundrum continue to stare us on the face till now, that same person will sit in the comfort of his office to say, the state is not in a hurry forgetting the constitutional requirement which states that all states of the federation must be represented at the Federal Executive Council, FEC, or all deliberations are null and void”, the group queried.