Kogi APC crisis worsen over appointment

The crisis in the All Progressives Party (APC) in Kogi State continued on Sunday as a chieftain of the party and a former acting Governor of the state, Chief Clarence Olafemi, accused the federal government of marginalising the Yoruba speaking Okun people of the state.

He said the recent appointments made by the Federal Government revealed a deliberate marginalisation of the people.

Olafemi, who was also a speaker of the state house of assembly, in an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, said the four appointments made by the federal government last week were from the eastern senatorial district only.

According to him, the appointments favoured only one section of the state to the detriment of others, especially the Okun people of the western senatorial district.

The Federal Government had last week announced the appointments of Professor Stephen Ocheni, as a ministerial nominee to replace Late Ocholi James, the former minister of state for labour and productivity, who died in a car crash along Kaduna/Abuja expressway last year March.

Apart from this, government also named the Resident Electoral Commissioner; the Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director of the National Development Bank and the Executive Director (Engineering ) of the  Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), all for Kogi state.

“My heart bleed when I read about the wicked marginalisation of my people, the Okun race in Kogi State, the third largest tribe of Kogi State and by extension the entire west Senatorial Area by the Federal Government of Nigeria with the shadow hand of the Kogi Government as alleged.”

“Within one week, four federal appointments were made from the federal government and the entire appointments were in one senatorial area of the state – the eastern senatorial area, where we already have two major state appointments, the deputy governor and the ‘powerful ‘ Chief of Staff.

“Our central senatorial area have the two ambassadorial slots for Kogi State in addition to producing the Governor with nothing at all for the west senatorial area and by extension the the third largest tribe -the Okun.”

He described this as “the worst distribution of positions that have ever becloud Okun people in any government since the creation of the state in 1991.”

Olafemi noted that the federal government had through the appointments violated the principle of federal character and negated the spirit of fairness, equity and justice.

“What is our sin as a people who gave our votes willingly to the ruling party and have one of the largest human resources in this country? Education and experience is our main industry in all fields of human endeavor.”

He added that as the Asiwaju of Okunland, he had been inundated with calls from his people, the umbrella body of the people of the area, the Okun Development Association (ODA), and other political class and the technocrats.

He said following this he “has the moral responsibility to lay this injustice at the door step of both the state and federal powers that be to please reverse and correct this marginalization and imbalance in the federal appointments immediately.”

But the state government through the Director General on Media and Publicity to the Governor, Kingsley Fanwo, accused Olafemi of pursuing a personal ambition, asking him to separate his personal ambitions from the Okun agenda.

He advised Olafemi to begin to act like a statesman with a bigger picture of the state rather than individual ambitions, describing his allegation against as “unsavoury, uncomplimentary and hasty.”

“My attention has been drawn to an open letter, purportedly written by a former Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, alleging marginalization of the Okun people of Kogi West Senatorial District. As far as I am concerned, the letter was in bad taste. Chief Olafemi didn’t tell the world about his true grievances.

“A leader of Olafemi’s caliber should explore more diplomatic channels of sending his protests across rather than resort to an open letter to embarrass the hierarchy of the party. Moreover, he recently told us how the national chairman of the party recently enlisted him to reconcile aggrieved members of the party. He should have reported his grievances to the party leadership rather than resorting to writing to the public to castigate the President.

“The Governor has hailed the President’s fairness in appointing Prof. Ocheni as Minister Designate. The late Minister who was replaced was from Kogi East. It wouldn’t have been fair to appoint his successor from another zone, given the fact that the zone lost both the governorship and ministerial slot to cold hands of death.”