The Chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and former President of the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), Architect Gabriel Aduku, has raised alarm over the insecurity and tension ahead of the forthcoming governorship election in Kogi State, urging relevant authorities to urgently address the situation to protect lives and property across the State.
This is as he also expressed concerns that the election slated for November 11, 2023, might not hold if violence continued unabated given the manner innocent people are being killed outrightly and their property burnt.
Aduku, who also chairs the Kogi East Elders’ Council, said it has become an undemocratic situation where the powers that be no longer allow political opponents and other stakeholders to run for political offices in the state, but constantly subject them to intimidation, harassment, and threat.
Speaking with journalists after meeting with the staff of ACF in Kaduna recently, Aduku 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, noting that Kogi has been inundated with huge security challenges over the past few years, even at the beginning of this democracy.
The ACF Chairman, who lamented that insecurity is escalating by the day, said; “You can see that there will be no election at the end of the 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 that we hold a peaceful election. But we have experts who use violence for election, rather than using peaceful manner. So it is a great concern to us.”
According to Aduku; “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 that 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 the government by divine intervention, with everybody hoping that he was going to cause positive evolution for Kogi State. Sadly, we have not enjoyed a peaceful election since the current leadership came into government. It has always been a situation of attacks here and there.
Further offering reasons for his concerns over the forthcoming gubernatorial poll in the North Central State, Aduku said; “And one cannot find major things he (Governor Bello) has done for the state. It pains some of us because we cannot go into the election with fear. An 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 takes over from him, no, it is normal. But if it 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.”
Specifically condemning electoral violence in any form, the ACF Chairman further said; ‘’I am not here to tell you what constitutes an unfair election. You in the media know it, you have heard how people were burnt because of the election, a poor woman was burnt in her house because of politics. Some people have their hotels and property burnt because such persons are no longer in tune with what the administration wants to do or is doing, therefore he should be destroyed.”
He said given the current happenings and situation on the ground; “The Kogi East people have to come together for a common front in the election because they have the population and the landmark, adding that; “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.”
