Ahead of the gubernatorial election in Kogi State, Social Democratic Party (SDP) has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to restore sanity in the state.
According to the SDP, their gubernatorial candidate and other members are being hunted, adding that if the president does not act fast to retire sanity, it will affect the upcoming election.
Speaking during a press conference at its national headquarters in Abuja, SDP national secretary, Dr Olu Agunloye who spoke on behalf of the party’s national working committee said the recent attack on its governorship candidate Alhaji Muritala Yakubu Ajaka and party facilities are state-sponsored attacks and series of physical harassments.
“The national working committee of our party once again, hereby respectfully call on the President Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to address the brewing social tension and evolving state of anarchy in Kogi State.
“This ugly situation has arisen from the prevailing reign of political terror against opposition parties, particularly the SDP in the State. We are therefore, repeating our call to Mr President for a special panel of enquiry to investigate the ongoing political terrorism, extra judicial killings and threats to democracy and civil liberties in Kogi State. This is a request for a definitive call to order for the Kogi State governor to stop the unwarranted political extremism.
“We have conducted our own independent findings which showed that there are no genuine reasons for the outgoing governor to hound and harass our governorship candidate except that the outgoing governor Yaya Bello’s administration has fallen far below the expected standards for good governance and has become jittery,” he said.
According to Ogunleye, “all economic and human development indices have shown that Kogi had fallen below expectations in the last eight years under governor Bello. We shall continue to stand firmly behind Alh Muritala Ajaka and defend his rights to secure and safe campaigns. We have formally petitioned the office of the President, Inspector General of Police, and service chiefs including the DSS and are confident that appropriate actions are being taken.
“SDP NWC says: enough is enough. We are calling on all bastions of democracy and civil liberties including the international communities in Nigeria to pay attention to the state-sponsored violence, extra judicial killings, and unwarranted repressive measures in Kogi State, and to take necessary actions to prevent social disorder and avoidable loss of lives because of political terrorism.
“This is important because a sub-national political crisis of this nature could snowball to a major national crisis which may affect national stability.
“We enjoin the Nigerian media to push into the front burner of national discourse by prioritizing major spotlights on the unlawful activities led by state actors, illegal deployments of State apparatus and quasi- security bodies in Kogi State under the leadership of Governor Yahaya Bello to intimidate the opposition parties. This has, unfortunately, become a megatrend and negative narrative on our democratic culture as a nation,” the party added.
