The bitter war between Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial candidate in the state, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan took another dimension after the female politician accused the Governor of engaging a construction firm to cut off the road leading to her community.
The incident happened prior to the Saturday presidential and National Assembly elections, and according to Natasha Akpoti, the Governor did all of that to frustrate elections in her communities by preventing the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), security agents and other stakeholders from accessing her senatorial district.
However, reacting to the allegation and his war with the female politician, Governor Yahaya Bello, said; “I usually avoid talking about her simply because she’s my sister and my subject and I’m bound to provide a level playing ground for everyone to carry out the electioneering process as free as possible and I’ve always provided that.”
“Honestly, if you ask me today why she continues to mention my name probably she has not said the truth, why? My name is so sweet in her mouth.”
“She goes to bed and dreams it’s Yahaya Bello. If she has any issues with her husband and friends, it’s Yahaya Bello. Anything that goes right or wrong with her it’s Yahaya Bello.”
“So, did I dig some entering and exit roads, yes, I did. I did that because as the chief security officer, I must take every step to protect the lives and property of all at all times.”
“Every day, I continue to come up with security measures and improve on it to secure the lives of the people. I study to move ahead of criminals at all times. In 2019 some people were killed and mainly they were our supporters even a day before the 2019 general elections.”
“We realised that these criminals did not fly in but moved through the roads and we identified some of these roads. Then comes 2023 and there are indications that these criminals were coming.”
“Long before the election, we had mapped out those roads all across Kogi central and other places. All these attacks that were carried out and people killed, these were the roads they passed through.”
“And there are other roads people pass through. Those dug roads served as escape routes.”
“So what we did was to dig up those roads so that if you commit a crime and try to escape, we’ll catch you. I chose good timing as well because that is when they usually come to commit crimes during the electioneering campaign. We are aware of the machineries that were brought in from different parts of the country.”