Guber Polls: Kogi Elders Caution Against Escalating Political Tension

Chairman, Kogi East Elders Council, Arch. Gabriel Aduku, has raised alarm over tension being generated by the forthcoming governorship election in Kogi State, and called on relevant authorities to wade into the situation to save people from being killed outrightly and their property burnt.

Aduku, who is also chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, said the election scheduled for November 11, 2023, might not hold if violence continued unabated.

According to him, it has become undemocratic a situation where the powers that be would not allow political opponents and other stakeholders to run for political offices in the state, subjecting them to intimidation and threat.

Adukwu in an interview with journalists after meeting with the staff of ACF in Kaduna, said the coming election in Kogi State was not only sensitive but also something of grave concern, in view of the insecurity in the state.

According to him, Kogi State has been faced with insecurity for the past few years, even at the beginning of this democracy and is escalating.

“You can see that there will be no election at the end of day if this violence continues to occur, and my feeling is that there may be no election in Kogi State.

‘’It is an obvious thing because people are allowed to carry arms and go to specific places that are not favourable to the administration to destroy them. You have them on record, I can’t mention them one after the other for you.

‘’In the last three weeks, you can see the violence coming and other plans may be on. I am on the radar because I am preaching for peaceful election to hold. But we have experts who use violence for election, rather than using peaceful manner. So it is a great concern to us.

“It is very scary that going into the election, it becomes concepts of violence, concepts of destruction, this is being openly said now. We are concerned about it. I am concerned about it because I am at the centre of it, how to ensure we have a peaceful election.

‘’This insecurity is not even good for our relationship as a state. Some of us are privileged to know how Kabba province was, and how we related very well under the regional government. And now it is a state and we have resources which God has planted in that state for us to use, but we are jogging around, and we don’t seem to have the right leadership, and it is getting worse.

‘’We have a young man who took over government by divine intervention, with everybody hoping that he was going to cause positive evolution for Kogi State.

“We have not enjoyed peaceful election since the current leadership came into government. It has been attack here and there. And one cannot find major things he has done for the state. It pains some of us because we cannot go into election with fears.

‘’Election is supposed to be a peaceful action. The Kogi East senatorial district is a very large area with a very big population, the people are peace loving, humble and disciplined but for the current governor to mishandle them calls for great concern.

‘’Nobody is saying a governor should not be interested in who take over from him, no, it is normal, but if is going to be done in such a way that you humiliate some persons in the state, you cuddle them through violence which has been obvious, and not by discussion, it will not be fair. So that is our concern.

“We are, therefore, saying without hesitation that violence will not be acceptable. We need a peaceful election in Kogi State. Enough of what had happened before now. We need a peaceful election where people will vote for leaders that will lead them.

‘’I am not here to tell you what constitutes unfair election. You in the media know it, you have heard how people were burnt because of election, a poor woman was burnt in her house because of politics. People have their hotels and property burnt because such person is no longer in tune with what the administration wants done, therefore he should be destroyed.

“The Kogi East people have to come together for a common front in the election because they have the population and the landmark, and even the origin of putting Kogi together from Kabba province and the colonial days, they have come to realise that it is no longer the normal liberal politics but to support their own to save them from insecurity.