*urges issue-based campaigns, Achievements of administration
*Shun ethnic agenda – DG Campaign Council
By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja
GOVERNOR Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has inaugurated the All Progressives Congress (APC) Governorship Campaign Council with a charge on members to base their campaign on issues and excellent performance of his administration.
Inaugurating the Campaign Council on Tuesday at Government House, Lokoja, Governor Bello enjoined the members to avoid preaching ethnicity or religion in their campaigns.
He urged them to rather base their campaigns on the achievements of his administration in the last eight years and the ability of the governorship candidate, Ahmed Usman Ododo, to consolidate and build effectively on the current administration’s successes.
The Governor implored members and supporters of the APC not to join issues with “others who do not have anything to offer in terms of adding value to the state and its inhabitants.
“Forget about liars, whose stock in trade is thuggery with nothing to offer. Go out there and preach what we have on ground in terms of infrastructure, not about ethnicity.
“Kogi State belongs to all of us. I have always said that Kogi State has the potential to be great if only we stop playing politics of ethnicity.
“I want all of you to go and work for the success of the party and you will be adequately rewarded.”
In his remarks, Director General of the Campaign Council and Minister of Steel Development, Prince Shaibu Abubakar Audu, charged Igala people to shun ethnic agenda that would not bring about development in the state.
He said that his late father and former governor of the state, Prince Abubakar Audu believed in ethnic agenda but had vision for the growth and development of the state.
The DG Campaign Council noted that in the last eight years, Governor Yahaya Bello had demonstrated his father’s vision for the state.
This, he said, the Governor had done through appointments, distribution and execution of projects across the three senatorial districts of the state without any iota of bias or sentiment.
“My father had a Pan-Kogi vision and was never a leader that focused on Kogi East.
“Any agenda that focuses on a particular senatorial district instead of Kogi State will not bring about justice, equity and development.
“We know that Igala people are agitating for return of power to the East but it must be discussed and resolved because power can never be taken with force”, he said.
The Nigerian Pilot reports that the inauguration was witnessed by thousands of party members and supporters who thronged Government House.
