Fiery cleric and Bishop of Sokoto Diocese of the Catholic Church, Bishop Matthew Kukah, has laid into Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State over the political violence rocking the state ahead of the November 11 governorship election.
Kogi residents have been under the cosh for a while now following a spate of political violence that has engulfed the state since the beginning of the electioneering campaign.
Opposition parties have accused the incumbent governor of sponsoring attacks against them in order to bully them out of the contest.
Commenting on the development in Kogi, Kukah, who spoke on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, November 8, 2023, said Bello has failed to live up to expectations as the youngest governor in the country.
“I feel very sad because Kogi has been on the front burner and Yahaya Bello, the governor, prided himself with being the youngest governor and being a representation of what the youths of this country can do if they are given the opportunity.
“Sadly, I think he’s been a very poor advertisement for what young people can do,” the convener of the National Peace Committee said.
In 2015, Bello became the Kogi State governor at 40 years old following the death of Abubakar Audu, the original winner of the election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Audu died before he was sworn into office, creating a constitutional lacuna that paved the way for Bello’s emergence, as the latter finished as the first runner-up in the party’s primary election.
He was elected for a second term in November 2019 and ran for his party’s presidential ticket in 2022 but failed at that endeavour.
