Yahaya Bello has failed Kogi people, says former governor Idris

Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja

Former governor of Kogi State Alh. Ibrahim Idris has expressed shock at what he says are the hardships and hunger Kogi people have been subjected to under the state’s APC administration, saying that Governor Yahaya Bello has failed the people.

Idris, while fielding questions from newsmen during an award ceremony organised by the forum of past assembly members in the state, said Governor Bello’s administration has succeeded in impoverishing the people, rather than fighting poverty.

“Each time I come to the State, I hear of how people are suffering and dying of hunger due to bad governance and non-payment of salaries, and sometimes when I see what our people have been reduced to, with their children dropping out of school, I feel like crying for them,” said the former governor who served between 2008 and 2011.

Idris, who is fondly called ‘Ibro’, however expressed hope that in the eventuality that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wins the 2019 state election, the people’s suffering would become a thing of the past, appealing to citizens to exercise a bit of endurance.

State PDP Chairman Sam Uhuoto, while giving his address said “the State is in a serious lacuna and needs a committed leader to fix it,” regretting that those currently at the helms of affairs are, in his words, “clueless leaders who are now caught napping where they are supposed to give quality service to the people.”

He called on all PDP members to “remain steadfast in the face of humiliation and harrassment” and refuse to defect to any other party, giving assurance that the opposition PDP party will bounce back and take power in 2019.

The occasion which was a kind of reunion of PDP members in the central state, hosting serving and past National Assembly members, including past political appointees.

Those who were given awards for their steadfastness on behalf the party include former governors Ibrahim Idris and Idris Wada, former Senator Tunde Ogbeha, PDP National Publicity Secretary Kola Ologbondiyan, and Senator Attai Aidoko.

Others are Tajudeen Yusuf, Emmanuel Egwu, both members of the National Assembly, and the current five PDP Assembly members in the state who refused to join other members to defect to ruling party APC.