Pressure Mounts On Yahaya Bello, Set To Dump APC For Accord Party

Governor Yahaya Bello’s hope of securing the ticket of his party, the All Progressive Congress (APC) for the November Kogi governorship election is under threat as a result of criticism of poor performance.

The governor due to uncertainty that becloud his ambition for second term is set to dump the party for Accord party.

It was reliably gathered that Bello who is presently facing a difficult task to secure the party’s governorship ticket has been petitioned by individual, groups and even members of his party before the National Working Committee of APC of bad administration.

The APC flags hosted in the premises of government house including the one hosted at the main entrance gate to Lugard House have been removed.

The Accord party secretariat was allegedly renovated by the governor. Although the Accord party was his alternative party in 2015 when he lost the APC governorship primary to late Prince Abubakar Audu.

According to sources, Bello was said to have disclosed to some of his closest allied in his cabinet that some cabal in Aso Rock advised him to move to another party since forces were against him for the ticket.

According to him, he has been assured of their support if he contest the governorship election in another party.

The sources also disclosed that the governor of Benue State, Samuel Otom a good friend of Bello also advised him to dump APC for another party so that he can contest for the November 2 governorship election.

Our reporter also gathered that the National Secretariat of the party received over ten petitions submitted by individuals, various groups and also within the party demanding that Bello should not be given ticket for second term.

One of the group who made their statement available to our reporter, a concerned group under the name Kogi Rescue Mission (KRM) are of the opinion that Bello’s “abysmal style of leadership has further subjected the state to political and economic hemorrhage.”

The group who embark on a peaceful protest led by its President, Hon. Ali Dan to the National Headquarters of the APC with numerous placards which carried various save our soul (SOS) messages, the group described the Yahaya Bello led administration as a threat to people’s welfare and the economic prosperity of Kogi state.

In their protest letter to the national leadership of the party, the group highlighted various anti-people activities of the state government ranging from suicidal deaths amongst the state civil servants whose salaries have not been paid for many months, institutional dearth in the land, misuse of state resources, hunger and perceived molestation of people who believed not to be supporters of the present administration in the state.

“Salaries of civil servants for November and 60% of December, 2017 are yet to be paid, this is despite receiving #20 billions as bailout funds, over #21 billions from the Paris Club refund and money from the monthly federal allocations as well as the internally generated revenue.

“As a result of non payment of salaries, about 3 civil servants took their own lives because of their inability to meet up with their family needs, while over a hundred have died due to lack of funds to continue treatment,” the protest letter read.
Dan Ali who spoke on behalf of the protesters also said that, “Businesses have folded up, people are leaving for another state to seek refuge and workers have become paupers, feeding from hand to mouth. You will believe me that on no account will the people support and vote for a Governor that operates draconian policy of this nature.”

Hon. Ali who decried the dearth of public institutions in the state also told APC national leadership that, the state workers have been turned to IDPs without recourse to dignity of labour as enshrined in the Labour acts.

“Workers in Kogi State are now living like IDPs, Kogi State has become hunger/poverty capital of the country as nothing seems to be working due to the sorry state of salaries.

“In Kogi state today,there are no public primary schools for the past 2 years as they only exist in structures without teachers to teach the pupils due to non payment of salaries, no primary health centers for the past 2 years, pensioners are not been paid for the past 12 months, there’s no judiciary for the past 8 months due to non payment of their salaries and no development any where in the state.

Everything in Kogi state is in comatose and the people of Kogi state are despondent,” he added.
He also appealed to the National Leadership of the APC not to risk the party’s ticket to Governor Bello, adding that, with his appalling style of leadership, the ruling party has no electoral destiny in the state.

“We are calling on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, the APC National Working Committee led by his excellency Comrade Adams Oshiomole and the National Leader of the APC, His excellency Sen. Ahmed Bola Tinubu not to risk the ticket of the APC for Yahaya Bello.

“If there is Integrity in our party, the APC, that means Bello will not feature in the forthcoming Kogi State s Governorship election with APC ticket. At the moment Kogi State is owing over #140 billion naira and the Governor recently applied for another loan of #30billion naira from the Central Bank of Nigeria which will make debt profile of the State to rise to #170 billon naira.

“Once again, we are crying for the help of President Muhammadu Buhari and the national working committee of the APC, led by Adams Oshiomole and the national leader of the APC Bola Ahmed Tinubu to salvage Kogi state from this extreme slavery Alhaji Yahaya Bello led adminstration.