Kogi youths rebuke elders over attack on Bello

THE political scene in Kogi state became more tensed on Tuesday as youths from the eastern senatorial district of the state blasted the Kogi East Elders Council (KEEC), over its alleged attack on the state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.

The youths described the KEEC headed by Col Ahmadu Ali (rtd) as a group of selfish elders that were only protecting their personal agenda.

Speaking under the aegis of the Kogi East Coalition of Youths for Good Governance, the youths noted that many of the allegations leveled against Bello by the KEEC were unfounded and concocted lies.

The spokesperson of the group, Alfred Ishaka, while addressing newsmen at the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kogi state council, accused the Kogi east elders of keeping silent when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ruled the state for 13 years without much development to the eastern senatorial district.

According to the youths, the allegations raised by the KEEC, which include insecurity, unpaid salaries, the stalemate at the Kogi State University, Anyigba among others were deliberate attempt to orchestrate conflict between the zone and the government.

Ishaka explained that the elders, many of whom live outside the state raised the allegations because they were disconnected with the development in the state, adding that the state had witnessed unprecedented development in the last two years.

The Kogi east youths also noted that the present administration had been fair to the senatorial district in terms of distribution of projects and appointments as the zone had the highest number of appointments.

He said, “At least 60 percent of Governor Yahaya Bello’s appointees are from Kogi east senatorial district, including the deputy governor. Similarly, the list of projects in the region is practically endless and constitutes a similar percentage of the aggregate number of projects and monies spent by the administration”.

The youths, who passed a vote of confidence on the governor, however, said, “It is therefore clear that the Kogi East Elders Council is a self-serving group having neither the mandate nor the support of the traditional institutions and the people of Kogi east senatorial district, they must be ignored and forgotten”.

It would be recalled that the KEEC in a statement by Ali last week had described the Bello led administration in the state as an “unmitigated disaster”.

The group noted that the state had not witnessed any meaningful development since the coming on board of Bello, decrying the state of insecurity, crime, non-payment of salaries of workers among others.