Kogi Election: PDP Plots Bello’s Fall

By Chidiebere Onyemaizu

In a bid to oust Governor Yaya Bello from power, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is weighing several options, thesourceng.com has been informed.

The party, it has been learnt, will be putting into consideration, the ethno-religious and cultural configuration of Kogi state as well as the present political realities in the state in picking its flag bearer for the November 2019 governorship election.

The incumbent  governor who is from Ebiraland, one of the minority ethnic groups, is most likely to clinch the All Progressives Congress, APC ticket.

Sources say the governor is also most likely to pick an Igala as running mate to replace his estranged Deputy, Simeon Achuba, an Igala himself. The decision to retain the Deputy governorship slot in Igalaland which is the most populated ethnic stock in Kogi, it was learnt, was to attract a large haul of Igala votes.

However, the PDP, credible party sources inform, is leaving all options open. One of the options is to leverage on Governor Bello’s ethnic minority status to pull the rug from his feet. Another is to exploit APC’s disqualification of the two sons of the late Governor Abubakar Audu from participating in its guber primaries.

The late Audu who ruled the state between 1992 and 1993 and again between 1999 and 2003 was on the cusp of a historic third time tenancy at the Government House in the November 2015 guber election in the state which he was contesting on the platform of the APC before he suddenly died, hours before his virtual victory was announced.

His death created a constitutional crisis which was later resolved via the fielding of Bello who came a distant second in the APC  primaries in the ensuing run supplementary election with the then incumbent governor,  Wada Idris of the PDP.

Even in death, Audu is still loved by his Igala ethnic group. Many from that area looked forward to seeing one of his sons fly the APC ticket for the November election.

However, the disqualification of the Audu scions by the APC, this magazine, gathered, is not going down well with the people, including some APC eggheads from the area. Many of them have, therefore, vowed to punish the party at the polls.

PDP is reportedly making overtures to the Audus. The party wants the Audu family to team up with it to wrestle power from Bello. According to an insider, in the event that the party picks an Igala as flag bearer, the Audus are expected to work assiduously to return one of their own to power.

There is also the possibility of the Okun Yoruba and the Igala teaming up to upstage Bello in the election, party sources told The Source.The party, it was gathered is pondering either an Okun Yoruba as candidate and an Igala as running mate and vice versa.

Among the prominent Okun Yoruba sons gunning for the PDP ticket is Senator Dino Melaye while the former governor Wada is one of the prominent Igala sons in the race for the party’s ticket.

Wada’s supporters and some party stalwarts argue that the former governor is PDP’s bet for the ticket since he will only do a term in office, and yield power to an Okun Yoruba in the spirit of justice, fairness and equity.

The magazine, however, understands that there are some die-hard Igala and PDP irredentists who are insisting that the party fields a candidate that will rule for eight years.

Apart from Bello and with the exception of military  governors, the Igala has ruled Kogi since its creation.