The Kogi State government has accused the chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Arch Gabriel Aduku of “using the platform of the ACF to fan his ethno-political division agenda in Kogi State.”
Kogi State Information Commissioner, Mr Kingsley Fanwo, said the Arewa Chief was “promoting tension, fear and division in a state that is largely peaceful.”
Arch Aduku had earlier raised the alarm over what he called “politically motivated insecurity in Kogi State”, saying the November 11 Governorship Poll might not hold in the state if “authorities do not do something about it”.
He said “innocent people are killed and their properties destroyed in the past few weeks”.
Responding to Aduku on Plus Politics, a political program on Plus TV Africa, Fanwo accused the elder statesman of being an interested party who had failed to impose an unpopular candidate on the people of the state.
He said, “We can understand his pains. He led a faction of an ethnic-based group to endorse an unpopular candidate, but Kogites are standing their ground to sustain the unity of the State. What he tried to use the platform of the ACF to achieve is borne out of frustration and desperation.
“It is reckless to claim a security operation to ensure peace in the state amounts to intimidation of the opposition. Politics is no crime and crime is no politics. We must separate the two.”
The commissioner added that the ACF chairman needs to tell Nigerians what he knows about the building of arms around the now deceased person who the security agencies described as the leader of a notorious criminal gang.
“The security agents explained why he was neutralized but the chairman of a highly respected organisation such as the ACF is justifying criminality and raising false alarm.
“The Government of Alh. Yahaya Bello will not sit by and allow local warlords to reverse our gains in the area of security.”
Fanwo said the state had improved dramatically in the area of security, saying anyone who attempts to disturb the peace of the people of Kogi State would be dealt with decisively.
“Governor Yahaya Bello owes the people of Kogi State, regardless of political, ethnic and social leanings, a safe society where they can aspire to greatness. He will maintain that until his last day in office,” he said.
The Information Commissioner said political candidates were campaigning freely in the state because it is their right to aspire to political offices.
He insisted that only those building “political militia” were crying wolf, having discovered that “Kogi is programmed to deal decisively and uncompromisingly with insecurity”.
Fanwo said the state would provide a peaceful environment for a free, fair and credible poll on November 11 to the disappointment of ethno-political division agents.
