Kogi 2019: Faleke Tackles Yahaya Bello

With just about three months to the governorship election in Kogi State, the incumbent Governor Yahaya Bello is being tackled by a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a third term member of the Federal House of Representatives from Ikeja in Lagos, Hon. James Abiodun Faleke.

Abiodun Faleke, who revealed that he had been watching the development in his home state as an indigene of Kogi West, wrote that contenders for the 2019 Kogi Governorship race was on his mind.

The lawmaker expressed concern that it would be dangerous for the APC to field Yahaya Bello for a second term in office and urged the party to consider the feelings of the people of the state and provide another candidate for the election.

“I hope the party, APC will put it’s thinking cap on to put in a process that will allow the people make the choice of who will lead the state from the Party without compromising honour.

“As it is today, I plead with the Party Leaders to put the interest of the people in mind and end the suffering of a people,” he wrote in a recent post in one of his social media handle.

Faleke added in the article, which he personally endorsed, that since “the 2015 abrakadabra process that brought in the current Governor of the state, I strongly believe that the whole world and the party leadership are living witnesses to the worst administration of a government in Nigeria.

“I cannot understand the pride of GYB when with all the available resources at his disposal he CANNOT boast of any meaningful project he has done to alleviate the suffering of the people.”

The Reps member stressed that when opportunity was given to Governor Yahaya Bello “against the wishes of the people,” he was expected to use the tenure to surprise the people in performance and good governance, but that “yes the people were so surprised with his lack of knowledge, and interest of the people at heart.

“I was not surprised that he has failed and will fail again because when you look at his background, after graduation, he served at Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commission and rose to level 12, and suddenly became a ‘millionaire’.”

Faleke said further that the people should ask themselves how could a level 12 officer become a millionaire in less than 5 years of graduation if not involved in stealing of government funds.

According to him, Bello was only rewarded with “a victory he was never part of,” adding that how could he have taken the people into heart, and that he got a licence to steal and steal and steal.

“So, as the bad tenure moves to final burial, the APC must be watchful not to make the same mistake.

“When GYB knew that he will be asking for second term from the people, why did he not do what is right with the people? If by any default he gets the party ticket(God forbids), and wins election, then the state will finally go into comatose.

“To the party, I still don’t understand why and how they came to decide on Indirect Primaries despite all available evidences before them? With History of past events on elections and cancellation of elections at the disposal of the Party? We must learn from history.

“If the Party is concerned about the people and their well being, give them access to freely choose their governor, I’m sure the people of the state will take appropriate decision at the ballot, ” he said.

It will be recalled that Faleke was the running mate to the late former governor of Kogi State, Prince Audu Abubakar APC in the November 2015 governorship election in the state.

Abubakar had died shortly before announcement of the results of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which later declared the election inconclusive and later insisted that Yahaya Bello, who came second in the primaries of the APC, would be the candidate of the party In the election.

A rerun election was eventually organised in places where INEC said there was anomalies and Yahaya Bello was eventually declared winner of the election.

With this, Abiodun Faleke, who had shown interest in the office, took the matter to the court of law and pursued it to the Supreme Court, which gave the verdict to Bello.

It was believed in many quarters that Bello pitched his tent with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and worked against the APC in the governorship election after he lost the primaries to Audu Abubakar.