Kogi 2019: Tinubu, Oshiomhole Against Bello’s Re-Election, As Bello Exposes Gang Up Against Him

By Akinwale Kasali

The hope of Governor Yahaya Bello remaining at the Lugard House in Lokoja, Kogi State, for a second term in remains a tall dream.

Bello has exposed the gang up against him by stalwarts and leaders of his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.

He alleged that there is a ‘Lagos gang-up’ against him, sponsored by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the party’s National Chairman, Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, to stop him from  picking the ticket as the candidate of the APC in the Governorship election in Kogi State slated for November.

Governor Bello has been under attack these past months from both Civil Society Groups and APC members in the State, which may mar his chances of getting the party’s ticket.

A group in the APC fold called Change Agent Foundation International, CAFI, based in Lagos, is an offshoot of the Mandate Group in Lagos that was against the re-election of Akinwunmi Ambode, which saw Ambode denied of the APC ticket in Lagos for a second term in office.  The CAFI is presently working against Bello’s re-election bid.

The National President of CAFI, Dipo Okeyomi, said the pressure group is ready to mobilize APC members en-masse  to vote out Bello during the state’s APC primaries.

Okeyomi added that just the way Ambode was voted out in the Lagos governorship APC primaries, so will be the lot of Bello, because there is nothing developmental he has done in the state. Rather, he has further impoverished  the people of the State, he alleges.

He added that, “Bello is no longer sellable. He may jeopardize the chances of the party if he is fielded as the candidate.

“Bello is owing over 36 months salary, there is no developmental strides one can point out, a lot of civil servants, and pensioners have died while some committed suicide due to hunger and impoverishment.  Bello is part of the people masterminding the removal of our national leader, Adams Oshiomhole”.

He stressed further that their leaders, Tinubu, Oshiomhole and Rauf Aregbesola, are not in support of Bello. He has overstayed in the Lugard House, and he needs to be removed.

Reacting to the move by CAFI to shatter his re-election ambition, Bello, through his media aide, Kingsley Fanwo, said he is not moved by the plan of CAFI or any Lagos gangs to unseat him, saying that “they are just distractions.”

“They sit in Lagos and believe they can decide what happens in Kogi. This basically shows they don’t have the grasp to determine what happens in the State.

“CAFI as a  group doesn’t shake, or move me a bit.  These are mere groups of political charlatans and political jobbers who are working for what they are paid for by their godfathers in Lagos. The move is dead on arrival because they will fail.

“This move is for their own selfish ambition, which will definitely fail. They are bent on destroying the State which we own for their inordinate ambition”.

The governorship elections will hold both in Kogi and Bayelsa states in November. Governor Bello is seeking a second term in office.