The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) alerts that no local government elections held in Kogi state on Saturday, describing the declaration of purported winners by the Governor Yahaya Bello-led administration as a sham orchestrated to subvert the will of the people and steal their electoral mandate. The PDP confirms that no electoral officers were appointed, no ballot materials were brought and no election of any kind took place in any polling unit across the state and as such there could have been no winners as announced by the APC administration. The party asserts that what played out was a criminal enterprise where APC leaders merely converged at government facilities to compile names and declared same as winners. Such provocative act against the wishes and aspiration of the people is a direct recipe for breakdown of law and order in the state. It is indeed, an act of extreme callousness that Governor Yahaya Bello could superintend over such daylight electoral robbery for which he wasted man hour and resources in declaring Friday, December 11, as public holiday as well as shutting down markets and businesses on the proposed election date, even when he had no plans for any election. This resort to desperate underhand measure of name compilation instead of facing election, has again confirmed that the APC and Governor Bello are mortally afraid to face the PDP in a free, fair and credible electoral contest, given their extreme unpopularity and rejection by the people. Governor Bello knows that if he allows a credible local government election, the PDP would sweep all the 2I councils in the state. He knew his party, the APC, would have experienced a deafening defeat. However, the PDP counsels Governor Bello and the APC not to gloat over their false victory, Governor Yahaya Bello must conduct elections into the Local government councils as provided by law as there is no way a compilation of names at government facilities can stand as elections into the councils.
