Blocking Natasha From Voting In 2023 Was Political Error By Ex-Governor Bello — Onoja

Former deputy governor of Kogi State, Chief Edward David Onoja, a.k.a. CEDO, has described the decision to prevent a PDP senatorial candidate, Mrs Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, from voting during the 2023 general election, as a political error by the then Governor Yahaya Bello administration.

Speaking on MIC On Podcast published on Saturday night, Onoja said the move not only backfired but also boosted Natasha’s popularity and sympathy among Kogi Central voters.

LEADERSHIP recalls that on the day fixed for the National Assembly elections in 2023, Kogi State government-owned caterpillars were deployed to the house of the then PDP candidate in Kogi Central Natasha. The equipment was used to dig trenches, thereby preventing her from accessing her polling booth.

Onoja, who was the deputy governor under Bello, however, such action was unstrategic.

“Yet again, you go back to Kogi Central. People are in charge of that region. But that is not politics to me; that is even making her popular, more loved. Unfortunately, that is not a strategy that would work. Rather, it will only build sympathy for the person you are doing it to, and the result showed. That was unstrategic,” he said.

Onoja, however, dismissed allegations of his involvement in electoral violence that characterised Bello’s tenure, stressing that his political style was built on persuasion and trust.

“We were not brutal, using logic and convincing ability to tell people why they should go your way. On Election Day, they will go your way because they believe and trust in you. In Olamaboro, where I come from, where I supervised, it was excellent, no violence,” he said.

Responding to why he did not advise Bello against the antagonising Natasha then, Onoja said he was unaware of it.

“If I was aware, I would not have sanctioned it,” he explained.

On claims that the United States had flagged irregularities in previous Kogi elections, Onoja maintained his name was never mentioned.

“My name is not there, my name can never be there. My strategy was ‘hi and convince people to bring them on board to vote for you.’ And then, when you leave that place, somebody else’s strategy will be ‘we have been mandated to get the numbers, and we will only get the numbers by this method.’ In my own area, never by that method,” he said.

The former deputy governor insisted that persuasion, not coercion, defined his political approach, contrasting it with tactics employed elsewhere in the state.