The friction between Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, and his deputy, Elder Simon Achuba, has taken a new dimension as the youth in the state have cried to President Muhammadu Buhari to wade into the matter and protect the deputy governor.
The youth also called on the nation’s security agencies to ensure the safety of the deputy governor following an allegation that his life was being threatened. The governor had denied the allegation by his deputy, but the forum of youths said the claim by Achuba was too weighty and should not be handled lightly.
In a statement by Richard Adejo and Jimoh Isa, president and secretary, respectively, the youths called on security operatives to tackle the issue of political insecurity that had ravaged the state in recent time.
“The recent reports of intimidation and unnecessary harassment of the sitting deputy governor of Kogi State, Elder Simeon Achuba, is seen as an affront to the entire people of Kogi east, west and central. We hereby condemned the actions in totality.
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“We, therefore, call on the president and other stakeholders in the country and Kogi state to take good notes of the threat and intimidation by the Kogi state government, especially the governor of the state and his chief of staff, Mr. Edward Onoja against the sitting deputy governor of the state,” the forum said.
According to them, the security agencies must tame the political insecurity in the state so that the governorship election scheduled for November 16, would be successful.
“The assurances that the November 2019 governorship election in the state will be free, fair and credible is doubtful as the deputy governor had revealed that the state will be under threat as a result of the reported importation of illegal arms into the state.
“It has been revealed that the imported arms have been handed over to one of the notorious and deadly political thugs,” the statement said adding that these set of people have allegedly resorted to the use of arms to achieve the aspirations of their principal ahead of the elections.
