By Thompson Yamput
Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi on Saturday, urged residents to trust the All Progressives Congress (APC) Governorship Candidate, Alhaji Usman Ododo and give him bloc votes to lead the state to greater heights.
Bello, who made the plea at the APC Zonal Campaign Rally in Okene, was visibly elated by the unprecedented turnout and the sea of heads at the rally.
The governor said that Ododo’s pedigree and leadership qualities were enough reasons for the residents to trust him and give him bloc votes for clear and unprecedented victory at the Nov. 11 governorship poll.
“As good people of Kogi, you need to entrust Ododo with your bloc votes considering his good character and pedigree to lead the state to greatness.
“I can assure you that we are leaving Kogi better than we met it for the incoming administration. Alhaji Usman Ododo is a capable hand. He is competence personified. Let’s support him to build on the legacies we have created.
“I believe that the mammoth crowd here today and the acceptance displayed as a show of love for the APC, Ododo and appreciation of the party’s achievements under my watch.
“We thank President Bola Tinubu for his quality leadership, and for his unflinching support for Kogi, which by God’s grace, will not disappoint him (President) and will win by landslide in the coming election.
“This unprecedented crowd is an indication that the APC has won. We have no opposition in Kogi Central and in the entire state. We did it before, we will do it again come Nov. 11.
“As an administration, we have done our best by uniting the people of the state. We met, on assumption of office, fault lines of disunity, ethnicity and injustice. But under our administration, we have been able to mend all the fault lines and Kogi is now united.
“We have created employment. We built infrastructure. We empowered our women and youth like never before under any administration in the state since creation. We have made fairness, equity, justice our priority.” Bello said.
Bello, who assured the people that the Nov. 11 election would be violence-free, said Ododo was not coming to learn on the job, nor promote ethnic agenda but would hit the ground running with visible results in terms of building on the achievements of his administration.
He called on security agencies to continue the good job they had been doing in the state and clamp down on criminals before, during and after the elections.
Ododo, the APC governorship candidate, on his part, expressed confidence that Kogi would remain an APC state after the Nov. 11 governorship election.
“I will continue to deliver on the mandate of our party for the development of Kogi and the wellbeing of our good people. We are serious about meeting the yearnings and aspirations of our people.
“We have been doing that under my mentor, Gov. Yahaya Bello, and we will continue to do so,” he said.
Also speaking, the Minister of Steel Development and APC State Campaign Council Director General, Prince Shaibu Abubakar-Audu, described the rally as a “game changer, a final nail on the aspiration of the opposition political parties in the state.
“The vision of Ododo, which has attracted this crowd, is to provide agricultural revolution across the state, with massive crops produced across the senatorial district.
“We are here to pursue a Kogi agenda and not an ethnic agenda. The incoming administration will build on the legacies of Bello in massively providing infrastructure and empowerment for the people.
“The Federal Government under President Tinubu is interested in the revitalisation of the Ajaokuta Steel Plant. He has asked that Ajaokuta be declared an industrial park.
“Once that is done, it will create massive jobs; 500,000 direct and indirect jobs will be created for our teeming youths.
“This is the reason the President is concerned and has said we cannot afford to outsource a critical state like Kogi to an opposition party, ” he said. (NAN)
