The Kogi state deputy governor, Simon Achuba, on Thursday raised the alarm that some gunmen allegedly working for the state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, were after his life and that of his family members.
The deputy governor urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector General of Police to intervene and ensure his safety.
Addressing journalists at his official residence in Lokoja, the state capital, Achuba also said the only problem he had with the governor was his insistence on good governance and payment of salaries of workers.
He noted that because of the rift between him and his boss he had been marked for attack by unknown gunmen.
He said, “The level of violence and intimidation that is all around Kogi state is very scary and even many of you who are journalists before me are very scared, sorry that you trying to manage your report so that you are not attacked.
“I can tell you now that from all information available to me, I suspect strongly that the governor has mobilised 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 SSS and other law enforcement agents that if anything happens to me and any member of my family or any of my staff he should be held responsible.
” You can not by force continue to rule on the people you are called to serve, you cannot and it is on this note I want to appeal to law enforcement agents and the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to beam his light upon Kogi state because of the level of insecurity that is currently in the state.
“The insecurity in Kogi state today and the fear of the people of Kogi state is not about armed robbery, it is not even about kidnapping anymore, it is not about ritual killers, it is about the gunmen of the governor who have dangling guns in the public without being restrained, the people will be discussing in social gathering and you will see someone and start attacking you”.
Apart from this, Achuba said there was no governance in the state as everything about the present administration is fake, saying he ran into trouble with Bello because he insisted that things should be done right.
The deputy governor regretted that three and half years after the coming of the administration, no single project was started, completed and inaugurated.
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According to him, he had in many occasions approached the governor and begged him that things should be done right for posterity sake.
He said on the issue of salaries and outstanding allowances and other treatment being meted to him, he had visited the Chief of Staff to the President 10 times with no solution to the crisis.
Achuba said, “Last Friday I was in the presidency and that was my tenth time of visiting the office of the Chief of Staff to the president to complain about all this trouble of no payment and this was started after the efforts within our own locality to resolve this matter didn’t yield any results.
“Even when my own traditional ruler intervened, some pastors came in some of the appointees also try their best but it was not possible I wrote a letter on the 6th of August to the president enumerating in details the issues at stake and called on them to intervene so that we can work together in harmony and in one accord.
” I went to the offices to complain even after writing this letter that’s taking long also wrote to the vice-president I wrote to the secretary to the federation I wrote to the national chairman of the party that is that was in August when all that didn’t work this year to erode to all these people that have mentioned on the 28 of March drawing the attention to my earlier later and the need for an intervention”.
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