Two set of protesters supporting and opposing Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi state on Monday stormed the national secretariat of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja.
The anti-Bello group, led by Jubril Yusuf, while addressing journalists, charged the party leadership to provide a level-playing ground for all governorship aspirants in the state ahead of the governorship.
Yusuf said the governor has nothing to show despite receiving a sum of N344 billion after 38 months in office covering statutory allocation, Internally Generated Revenue, allocation to local governments, Paris Club 1, 2 &3, as well as refunds on road construction by the previous government.
“Despite the non-performance of the government of Alhaji Yahaya Bello, he still wants to go for another four years. Kogi State under Governor Yahaya Bello will disappear from the map of Nigeria.
“The primary purpose of a government and any government for that matter is the welfare of the citizens, the governed; Yahaya Bello’s government has abandoned its primary purpose. It has defeated itself and it has no reason being in power. It should be voted out and replaced with purposeful one, a people-oriented government.
“For this to be possible, we prayed the leadership of the APC to create a level-playing ground for all aspirants in the party by organising direct primary to pick its governorship candidate in August this year,” he added.
Not long after the departure of Yusuf-led group, the pro-Bello protesters arrived to warn those marching against the governor to desist from such act.
The protesters, who asked security details attached to the party’s national secretariat to caution any other further anti-Governor Bello protest, disturbed human and vehicular traffic at the entrance gate of the secretariat.
They said, “We have delivered our message and we won’t make noise about it any longer.
“Nobody can stop Governor Bello’s re-election. All those opportunists that voted for Atiku Abubakar during presidential elections are coming back to decide who will be the governor of Kogi.
“Why are they protesting in Abuja instead of coming to the state? These protesters are lucky we did not meet them here.”
