There was a great stir at the Kogi State Government House, Lokoja, when political appointees and stakeholders of the ruling APC booed and shouted down the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Matthew Kolawole, berating him for calling on Governor Yahaya Bello to bring someone from his senatorial district to succeed him.
The governor, continuing his consultation with APC stakeholders and leaders in the state, had invited all the political office holders and appointees to address them on the need to deliver all the candidates of the party including the president in the forthcoming election.
When the Speaker was called to respond on behalf of the appointees he stood up and eulogised the governor and his achiements, saying Kogi has never had so good and then bowed before the governor to beg him to bring his successor from his among his kinsmen
“Your Excellency, you have done what no governor has done before in terms of achievements and touching of lives of the people, if I begin to outline your achievements we may not leave here today and think the chairman that spoke before me has done justice to that,” he stated.
“In Kogi West senatorial district especially you have done marvelously; you built the first flyover bridge at Ganaja junction, Lokoja, in Kabba town, which is the headquarters of the district, when Adamu Attah, an Ebira, was governor, he built the Kabba-Okene road. Your Excellency too an Ebiraman also constructed the kabba town ship road, we have never had it so good.
“I will, therefore, [bowing down] plead with your Excellency to bring someone among your kinsmen in your senatorial district to be your successor in 2023 so that he may continue the good works you have done.”
This elicited serious emotion which caused a no small stir as the audience began to boo him calling him all sorts of names and ordered him to sit down if he had no better things to say.
The whole hall became so rowdy that police men and other security agents had to be called in to appeal to the people to calm down.
Majority of the people in the state believe that power should now shift to kogi west senatorial district where the Speaker hails from because the igala who are in the Eastern senatorial district have ruled the state for over 18 years while the Ebira from the central senatorial district are to complete their eight years in office by January 2024
One of the appointees who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity after the meeting expressed his disgust over Kolawole statement and said: “Kolawole should have buried his head in shame, how can the party Reps candidate who needs the votes of his people publicly go against the interest of the same people who wants to vote for ? This is shameful and he has to apologise to Okun people.”
Meanwhile, Kolawole is in serious disarray as his name did not make up in the INEC lists of candidates to contest for 2023 general election. His name was omitted in the INEC portal which made him to seek for redress to compel INEC to upload his name but the court refused his prayers.
By the omission of his name and the final release of candidates names, political pundits said the APC may not have any candidate for the Kabba Bunu Ijumu federal constituency seat and this may have sealed the fate of the Speaker.
