Kogi : A vote for Audu is a vote for divisiveness, Wada warns

Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming governorship election in the state has warned that a vote for former Governor Abubakar Audu will be a vote for divisiveness and ethnic jingoism, which will not augur well for the unity of Kogi people.

In a statement issued on Monday by Governor Wada’s Chief Communications Manager, Mr Phrank Shaibu, the governor said no governor in the history of Kogi State, has championed ethnicity and other primordial sentiments as ex-governor Audu did during his four year reign as the governor between 1999 and 2003.

 ''Coupled with  Abubakar Audu’s tendency for violence , voting the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC)  as governor , therefore, poses a great risk for the unity of the state,” Shaibu said.

 Wada said recent utterances by the APC candidate, especially the statement he made in Kabba a couple of weeks ago ,asking APC supporters to kill any PDP hoodlum offers a window into Abubakar 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,'' Shaibu said.

 He said 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,’’ Shaibu said.

 He said the governor Kogi State needs at this time in her history is a man who will see the whole state and indeed members of all political parties as his constituency, a governor who will not whip up ethnic and religious sentiments, which some unscrupulous people have always used to divide our people, and a governor whose word will be his bond.