Ahead of the November 11 governorship election in Kogi State, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Senator Dino Melaye, has urged residents not to be intimidated by threats and violence allegedly orchestrated by the state’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Melaye told journalists after a meeting of Kogi PDP stakeholders from the state’s three senatorial zones with members of the National Working Committee (NWC) at the party headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday that the meeting had adopted a strategy to depose the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
You should not be intimidated by the APC’s threat, violence, and humiliation; it should not deter you from exercising your democratic rights,” the PDP candidate said. I want you to know that we will protect our people.
Melaye believes the PDP will win the Kogi State election because “we have never had it so bad in the history of the state.” Our people were impoverished, salaries were not paid, pensions were not paid, gratuities were not paid, and the health sector was non-existent. In fact, all of the state’s general hospitals are merely consulting clinics.
Ambassador Umar Damagum, acting National Chairman of the PDP, stated that the party has already seen prospects in the Kogi election and that the meeting was held to learn about the challenges and how to work on reconciliation before the election.
Damagum said:
This reconciliation will take three stages from the ward, local government, and state. I am glad most of the senior stakeholders are here and they are supposed to anchor that reconciliation. Because we are from outside the state, we can only encourage you to work on the reconciliation.
I am delighted to tell you that the Osun State governor, who is the chairman of the Kogi Campaign Committee has promised that he will go to each zone to sit down with you on a zonal basis. He will campaign in all these places and he is very much alive to this responsibility.
In this meeting, we want your leaders to tell us where they want us to come in so that we can work together for victory.
Some of the stakeholders present at the meeting were Prince Shola Akomode, Stephen Olorufemi, Tunde Ogbeha, Idris Wada, Kola Ologbondiyan, Patrick Adaba, Philip Salau among others.
