Kogi youths storm APC secretariat urging to party to drop Yahaya Bello as its governorship candidate

YOUTHS from Kogi State have stormed the national headquarters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja asking the party not to field Governor Yahaya Bello in the forthcoming gubernatorial elections.

Currently the youngest chief executive in Nigeria, Governor Bello assumed office in January 2016 and in November this year, his tenure will end. Despite his tender age of 43, Governor Bello has not been the dynamic and vibrant governor Kogians had expected as he owes months of salary arrears, lives in the federal capital Abuja and is seldom in the state to address the concerns of local people.

A close ally of President Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Bello is frequently seen at the presidential villa to the chagrin of Kogians who would rather he be in the state addressing their concerns. With the APC primaries due to be held later this year, a group known as the Network of Kogi Youth Group, has asked the party to select someone else as its gubernatorial candidate.

Taking their protest to Abuja yesterday, the group, whose membership cut across the three senatorial districts of the state, submitted a protest to the APC national chairman Adams Oshiomhole. They pointed out that it is a risk to allow Governor Bello to fly the party’s ticket, considering his perceived numerous wrongs since his assumption of office.

Among other things, the group itemised the lack of payment of salaries and no developmental projects as reasons that the governor should be stopped at all costs. They added that Kogi State wants continuity of APC but not with Governor Bello, asserting that he has failed to prove his mettle over the last three years.

Enejoh Enemali, the group's chairman,. said: “The executive Governor of Kogi State has perpetuated numerous wrongs ranging from the lack of payment of salaries and the lack of developmental projects. Embezzlement of state funds in humongous proportions, the introduction of anachronistic laws which have heightened insecurity in the state as well as the deaths of civil servants due to hardship, are all problems associated with him."

He further explained that the APC must not use the last elections to judge the chances of the party if Governor Bello was given a ticket, saying that the party’s albatross lies with him flying the ticket. Mr Enemali added that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kogi State was waiting in the wings to stage a come-back if Governor Bello eventually emerged as the APC flagbearer.