2023: Kogi PDP Holds Retreat, Warns Governor Yahaya Bello

The Kogi chapter of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has reiterated its call on the Governor Yahaya Bello to cancel plans to sell off state assets while also cautioning members of the public against purchasing any of such assets.

This warning was part of the communique issued weekend after at a retreat in Abuja by members of the party.

The retreat which considered strategies on how the party can come back to power in the State was organised by Kogi Renaissance Group, KRG.

It was attended by former Kogi Governor’s Ibrahim Idris, Idris Wada, former Senate President Bukola Saraki, (Chairman), former Information Minister Jerry Gana, (Guest Speaker), PDP candidate in the last Kogi Governorship election Musa Wada, Senator Nicholas Ugbane, House of Representatives member Musa Ibrahim, retired Director David Ehimony and former Police Affairs Minister Humphrey Abbah among several others.

The communique which reportedly decried the decrepit and degenerate conditions of physical and social infrastructure in Kogi State, under Governor Yahaya Bello, interrogated the rationale for the advertisement of state-owned assets for disposal, by an administration which has contributed the least to the physical development of state, in its 30 year history.

The retreat noted that the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC), has instituted a regime of the barrel of the gun, unknown in the nation’s electoral history. Husband of Mrs Salome Abuh, the lady politician who was locked up in her house and incinerated by agents of the APC, after the November 2019 governorship election in the state, Elder Simeon Saidu Abuh, recounted the horrific murder of his wife and the wanton destruction of the family’s physical estate, in the unfortunate event.

The retreat enjoined the electorate to fight electoral bestiality in any form.

Also speaking at the programme, Saraki enjoined the PDP to institute a regime of intra-party unity, equity and fairness, and to ensure cohesion and oneness, in the pursuit of electoral success.

According to him, no effort should be spared in ensuring that the party and its candidates at various levels, proceed into elections only after adequate housekeeping and realignment within its ranks.

Saraki, who is also at the head of the national reconciliation project of the PDP, expressed delight that in the cross-country tour of his team, Kogi State did not feature on the list of states and chapters of the PDP, whose leaders and members, needed to be addressed.

This, he observed, is indicative of the fact that the party in the state is one solid block, without factions and divisions, a pedestal which the Kogi State PDP must build upon, going forward.

He stressed the need for consensus building in the decision making processes of the party, adding that forgiveness is key for reconciliation, and members must be able to forgive wrongs of the past, for the progress of the party.

Professor Gana commended previous PDP-led administrations in the state for their efforts in the provision of infrastructure and impacting the socioeconomic development of the state.

He noted that the geographical location of Kogi State in the middle of the country, surrounded by nearly a dozen states and the federal capital territory, makes it incumbent on every government in the state to do their best.

“There’s no hiding place for Kogi State. It is the gateway between the north and the south. Commuters can form their opinions by just driving through the state to the South West, South East and South South. States abutting Kogi State in the north including Nasarawa, Niger and Kwara, can easily make their impressions. On current form, it is clear that the APC government in the state has failed. We need to mobilise to get them out.”

Ibrahim Idris, former governor of the state, expressed delight that younger elements in the Kogi State PDP, picked up the gauntlet to put the retreat together.

He noted that the programme and the quality of attendance, will send a strong message to the opposition that the PDP is reinventing itself.

In his welcome address, Chairman of the Kogi PDP Renaissance Group, David Ogu, noted that the party remains the only pathway for the people of Kogi State and indeed Nigerians at large, out of the impoverishment, despair and disillusionment which the APC has foisted over the country in over six years. He said the party will collaborate with all lovers of justice and democracy, to rescue Kogi State and Nigeria, from the grips of its retrogressive overlords.