Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the upcoming November 21 gubernatorial elections in the state, has charged residents of the state to beware of the antics of Prince Abubakar Audu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress.
Wada said voting Audu poses a great risk to the futute development of the state, describing him as a champion of ethnic and primordial sentiments.
The governor made this known on Thursday in a statement through his spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu.
The statement reads in part: “Voting the candidate of APC as governor poses a great risk to the unity of Kogi state and going by his recent statement in Kabba few weeks ago where he asked APC members to attack any PDP hoodlum during the elections shows a window into Audu’s innermost mind.
“Add this to his dark past that was characterised by acid attack on journalists and politicians, one begins to wonder whether a man with such a provincial world view can successfully lead a complex, multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-lingual state like Kogi State.”
Nobody has championed ethnicity and other primordial sentiments as ex-governor Audu did during his four-year reign as governor between 1999 and 2003, Wada stated.
Also, he stressed: “What Audu did by his statement in Kabba was to incite APC supporters against supporters of the PDP, thereby causing disaffection in a state where people of all ethnic groups have been living together in harmony for years. Had the APC candidate allowed history to be his guide, he would have known that the state has always voted for the PDP since they voted him out in 2003 and will continue to do so”.
“Our party, the PDP has never provided social amenities and other dividends of democracy on the basis of affiliation to a thug group, political party or ethnic considerations because we know that Kogi State is a melting pot of sorts, where people of different ethnic groups and political tendencies have tended to melt into an harmonious whole. This is the state that ex-governor Audu is seeking to divide.”