Bello after my life, Kogi dep gov alleges ...Allegation spurious, untrue – Gov
Kogi State Deputy Governor Simon Achuba at a press conference at his official residence in Lokoja yesterday alleged that Governor Yahaya Bello planned to attack him, his family members and aides.
Achuba alleged that he had credible information of a plan by the governor to use “his gunmen” to attack him.
He said: “The governor has mobilized his gunmen to attack me and this I want to put to the public and draw the attention of the Inspector General of police, the Director of State Security Services and law enforcement agents that if anything happens to me and any member of my family, my aides and all my staff, he should be held responsible.
Achuba also appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and the security agencies to beam searchlights on the security situation in Kogi State in the buildup to the November 16 governorship election.
He alleged that the fear of people in the state at the moment was not about armed robbery, kidnapping and ritual killings, but activities of government-sponsored gunmen who go about harassing people who express contrary opinions to the powers that be.
He said he began to have strained relationship with Bello when he (Achuba) took a stand against non-performance, nonpayment of salaries to workers and lack of infrastructural development under the current administration.
In his reaction, Bello, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary Onogwu Mohammed, described the allegation as “bogus and an exhibition of a blind rage by an angry suckling with a long-term pattern of abnormal behaviour characterized by exaggerated feelings of self-importance.
“The Kogi State Government is appalled that a deputy governor, who should epitomize leadership and good example in all senses, could descend so low to employ smear campaign against the person of His Excellency, Governor Yahaya Bello and we state without equivocation that Mr Achuba has no shred of evidence for his reckless surmising which is nothing but a scripted venture in ruinous adventure.
“We do not train assassins, (and) as such, the state government or her personnel cannot be involved in sending assassins to murder any human soul let alone a Deputy Governor of our dear state.
“Despite these unsubstantiated ramblings however, we deemed it fit to clear the air by letting the general public know that the Kogi State Government would not be dragged into any form of political gerrymandering concocted for the furtherance of any person’s political interest or notoriety.”
He challenged Achuba to bring evidence of his claims or “desist from making further spurious allegations.”
“We warn Mr Simon Achuba who is known to history as a man whose affinity for violence is unparalleled not to judge us by his own standards. The report of the Kogi State Government Commission of Enquiry on the Iyaño Ethnic crises in 2017 is still fresh in our memories.
“The Kogi State government led by Alhaji Yahaya Bello, therefore, rejects the futile attempt at seeking to link it to any assassination attempt on the Deputy Governor and we advice that people desist from seeking political capital from scenarios they imagine would advance their parochial cause, no matter how banal such causes may seem,” the statement read in part.