From top left, Governor Usman Ododo, Murtala Ajaka and Olayinka Braimoh

Richard Elesho

The animosity that characterised the Kogi State governorship election is yet to subside nearly four months after the poll. The election, which produced Usman Ododo as the winner, was held on 11 November 2023. Although the winner has since been inaugurated as governor, the legal battle over his legitimacy has kept the frontiers of hostility ever fresh.

The emerging scenario shows the Social Democratic Party, SDP, and its candidate, Murtala Ajaka, which came second in the poll, and Olayinka Braimoh of the Action Alliance, AA, on one hand locking horns against Ododo, and the Kogi State Government on the other hand. Both groups have been inundating the media over different versions of proceedings at the tribunal. In addition, they have maintained their gladiatorial attires exchanging verbal tirades and counter allegations outside the courts.

The SDP, which had consistently presented itself as the underdog in the fight on Good Friday, 28 March, cried out that its members were being attacked in Okene. The party claimed that masked thugs invaded the houses of people who had served as their witnesses or planned to testify in the ongoing Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja and dispensed mayhem, assaulting people and setting their properties on fire.

Those affected included Agoni Yusuf, the party’s campaign director-general in the Central Senatorial Zone whose rented apartment at Okengwe was vandalised, Mumuni’s Time Tell Pharmacy Idoji -Inike Junction, where valuables carted away and Mustapha Otinawu’s family house at Ahogede Idozumi.

The party reportedly fingered the state government and the APC in the attacks. The National Chairman of the SDP, Alhaji Shehu Musa Gabam, who addressed a Press Conference on the incident, urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and heads of the security agencies not to look the other way.

“As a responsive and responsible political party, we hereby wish to humbly inform the IGP that the threats to the safety and security of our members in Kogi State are indeed real and dangerous. We respectfully enjoin the IGP to please intervene before the situation spirals out of control… At this juncture, we are calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to act fast and do the needful on the Kogi State insecurity matter so as not to set the state on fire.”

The state government fired back. Kingsley Fanwo, Commissioner for Information and Communication, who addressed the media in Lokoja on Saturday. exonerated the government. He described the allegation as headless and reckless explaining that if any attack did really happen as claimed by the party, “it must have been stage-managed by the SDP to justify their failure to produce the number of witnesses they claimed to have in line with their modus operandi as witnessed during the campaign.”

“Why would anyone attempt or even attack a witness that has testified against those that paid him to witness for them? The discerning public is following the tribunal case and understands there is no need to attack witnesses that are doing enough to make SDP lose woefully in the law court,” he said.

The state government noted that it was absurd and incomprehensible for the SDP to continue to exhibit anti-democratic tendencies and provoke the sensibility of the people in such a reckless manner, adding that “if they are so confident in their incompetent petition, why resort to self help?”

“As a legitimate government, we won’t be soiled in the oil of subjudice that the SDP has engaged in with impunity. We will protect all the people and residents of the state and also protect our integrity and image.

“We wouldn’t have bothered to respond to the barking of the SDP and its leadership as the State Government is busy with governance; but it is important to set the record straight and address the minds of the public to the tradition of lies by the SDP.

“The Kogi State Government under the leadership of His Excellency, Alh Ahmed Usman Ododo, the democratically elected Governor of the State, will be undaunted in its resolve to serve the people of the State rather than be entangled in the propaganda festival by a jobless and idle party.”

“To this end, the State Government did not receive any report of politically stirred crisis and therefore surprised at the blatant, false, spurious and pedestrian claims by the Social Democratic Party in the party’s usual way of whipping up sentiments and spreading falsehood to win public sympathy,” he said.

“The Kogi State Government doesn’t subscribe to violence and actions that breach the peace of the State. We will also not accept statements deliberately made to incite the people against the government and possibly spark panic. The SDP must always be prepared for the consequences of their actions and utterances against the Kogi State Government or its officials.

“For the National Chairman of the SDP to make false claims against the Kogi State Government before gentlemen of the Press is further proof of the party’s irrelevance and the reason the party is not controlling any state in the Federation. Kogi State can not be a podium for the SDP to test its songs of division, ethnic bigotry, and violence.

“We urge the people of the State to go about their normal businesses as there won’t be any chance for anyone to attack any Kogite. No stone will be left unturned to ensure peace and security in the state.

TheNews reports that the AA had also earlier accused the APC of abducting three witnesses who testify against it in court. The party also debunked the allegation. It would be recalled that concerns over security and safety of its operations forced the tribunal to relocate to Abuja from Lokoka, the state capital.