You must have heard that Kogi State now has a new Governor in the person of Yahaya Bello – who was sworn in today, Wednesday, January 27, 2016 – but without any deputy?
Well, in case you are hearing about the Kogi palava for the first time, here is the story: a former Governor of the State, Prince Abubakar Audu, decided to take another shot at the position. He contested with Hon. James Fakeke, currently a member of the Federal House of Representatives, as his running mate and on the ticket of All Progressives Congress, APC.
Both men were just inches away from victory when Audu suddenly died. The APC opted for Bello, who came second in the party’s primaries who produced late Audu and Faleke, as his replacement, instead of Faleke. Incensed, Faleke, a one-time local government chairman in Lagos, dragged the party to court. But while the matter was yet to be dispensed with, a supplementary election followed which Bello won – using his votes and the ones earlier garnered by Audu and Faleke.
Faleke, who has not shifted grounds since his principal’s passage, insisted that he won’t work with Bello as his deputy and ever since ‘Kogi has literally not known peace.’ Delving into the political logjam, some insiders just divulged what they claim to be the two major reasons for that to YES INTERNATIONAL! Magazine.
According to them, the first reason is that Faleke is still optimistic that he will triumph in court. Especially because of his solid legal team and all the arguments they have lined up.
The second reason is that ‘he’s never really jelled with Bello’ from the word go. Coupled with the fact that with the bad blood that currently exists between them, fears abound that just sworn-in Governor may still want to extract his own pound of flesh by rendering him redundant when everything must have eventually died down – and should he decide to work with him.
Corroborating this, a source said if it were not so, ‘Faleke’s political godfather, Cardinal James Odunmbaku, aka Babaeto, who has so much respect for APC strongman, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed, should have been able to prevail on him to tow party line a long time ago…So, you can see that this thing is deeper than we can all see…There are secret undertones to all the drama, but the days and weeks and months ahead will surely reveal all…The only sad and unfortunate thing is that Kogi just made history as one State where a Governor was sworn in without a deputy, which I don’t know whether or not it has happened before in this country…’