Richard Elesho
When the United States of America, USA, and United Kingdom, UK among others issued international terror alerts on Nigeria, an average citizen or resident of Kogi State did not loose sleep. About two weeks after however, the travel advisory is snowballing into a street brawl in Okene, the heartbeat of Kogi Central.
Efforts to nib the evil plot in the bud, has set two illustrious children of the commercial community, Governor Yahaya Bello and fiery lawyer Mrs Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan on collision course. While Bello, an Egbira is ruling on the All Progressives Congress, APC platform, Natasha, also Egbira, is People’s Democratic Party, PDP, candidate for Kogi Central in next year’s election. There is no love lost between them over a conflict of political interests, which has since degenerated to a shouting match and name calling.
The immediate cause of the tirade is the link or the lack thereof, with an outlaw, named Safiu, currently cooling off as a guest of the Department of State Security, DSS. He was one of two terrorism suspects arrested on Monday, 24 October in a sting operation at Trademore Estate, Lugbe Abuja. Security operatives are also said to be interested in him because of his alleged roles in the Owo Catholic Church massacre and Kuje Correctional Home jail break.
The Kogi State Government fired the first shot. Commissioner for Information and Communicstion, Kingsley Fanwo in a statement on Monday 31 October accused Natasha, her husband and her party of links with terrorists, asking the security agencies to invite her for questioning. He said the call became necessary because the suspect is a member of the PDP, who Natasha has identified with. The statement reads in part:
“It is worrisome for the PDP that Natasha represents to come out openly to identify with Safiu, a terror suspect that is linked to the bloody attack on a church in Owo that led to the death of scores of worshippers. He is also linked to the dastardly attack on the Kuje Correctional Center as well as military formations within and outside of Kogi State.
“The fact that they (PDP) claimed Safiu was their party member is an admission of strong links to him and his nefarious and deadly activities. As an administration, we are witnessing a surge in criminality in Kogi Central. Available data shows that Kogi Central today accounts for 51.2% of the total crime rate in Kogi State. With the billions of naira we have invested in strengthening our security architecture that has guaranteed peace in the state, we will not accept a revert into the days of bloodbaths.
“The Kogi State Government will not allow a marriage between terrorism and politics. Nigeria is doing everything possible now to win the battle against terrorism.
“We call on security agencies to arrest defenders of terrorists and ask them their levels of involvement. No matter how smart they think they are, they cannot beat our robust security architecture.”
“Security agencies are doing a great job in Kogi State and we commend them for that. To get to the root of the last vestiges of terrorism in Kogi Central, there is a need to invite Natasha Uduaghan and her husband as well as PDP party leaders in Kogi Central to explain the rationale behind their vociferous defence of an arrested terrorist,” the statement said.
Fanwo also repeated the allegations on Channels Television. However, Natasha who was also on air debunked the allegations vigorously pushing them on the doorsteps of Governor Bello and the government.
Natasha, a breastfeeding mother said Safiu just newly joined the PDP from APC and that she has never met with him. She claimed that he was a though boy engaged by the Governor for dirty jobs during the 2019 elections. She agued that if he was a terrorist, he would have committed those offences in the APC, before seeing the light through his recent association with the PDP.
She denied asking for the release of Safiu. Instead she said what she asked for is that the suspect should not be killed extrajudicially, so that he can sing to the law enforcement agencies on his involvement with terrorism.
The half-caste politician repeated the position Friday when she featured on the Morning Show on Arise Television. She said the suspect is a blood relation of Jamiu Asuku, Chief of Staff to Governor Bello and was at a time living in Government House, Lokoja. She provided photographs of the suspect posing with some Kogi government functionaries.
She alleged further that the Governor had at a time given Safiu contract for her elimination. She also claimed the Governor plotted to set her up with an obtained search warrant. The mother of all her allegations was that Bello used connections to release the suspect from prison when he was in custody. Listen to her.
“At the time of these attacks [Kuje prison / Owo], Safiu was with Yahaya Bello. He was in the Government House every day.
“He was living in the house of the Chief of Staff. So if anybody should be held responsible for the Owo massacre and Kuje Prison break it should be Yahaya Bello that should have questions to answer in conjunction with the chief of staff himself because they released him from prison for God knows what.
“I even got to know that Safiu was on death row. I happened to know he was a hardened criminal on death row but Bello freed him just before the 2019 election. Why he was freed and the nature of his freedom is left for Yahaya Bello to explain.”
“I’m calling on all the security agencies and other international observers, they should zoom their searchlight into Kogi and call Yahaya Bello to order. I’m surprised he is all out in such manner to imbibe fears in the mind of the people he ought to lead and govern in peace and fairness.”
So much of the allegations and counter allegations. Observers have however raised eyebrows at some of the claims. For instance a lawyer, Emmanuel Omeiza wondered where the Governor derived the power to set free a convicted criminal. He said Natasha “wallowed in ignorance when she claimed that the Governor has the power to grant amnesty or prerogative of mercy for condemned criminals serving jail term in the Federal prisons or correctional facilities in Nigeria.”
He added that “no law in Nigeria empower anybody other than the security authority or any institution recognized under the law to obtain a search warrant to conduct a search on anybody’s house or premises.”
Shortly after Natasha’s AriseTv appearance, a damaging document about her marriage trended in the social media. The document though a two year-old letter claimed she blackmailed her husband, an Itsekiri Prince and oil magnate into marriage.
The Governor and the Amazon once belonged to the same political party. The quest for power which brought them together has separated them, threatening to shake Kogicentral to its very foundations. Who blinks first?