In a swift reaction to the allegation that the governor of Kogi State facilitated the ongoing crisis between the staff of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and members of the National Working Committee (NWC), the special adviser on media to the governor, Jacob Edi, has described such allegations as devilish, and the mischievous creation of political opportunists.
The initial allegation was made by a non-governmental organization, the Initiative for Progressive Governance in Emerging Communities (IPDEC). The IPDEC said its findings confirmed that the crisis was neither about the proposed PDP rationalization of staff, nor the speculated downsizing of its work force. The co-coordinator of the group, Dr. Musa Adejo, alleged that Governor Idris Wada made available logistics and financial support to the PDP workers to initiate the crisis of last week.
Describing such allegations as false and reckless, Mr Jacob Edi said, “That anyone would make such wild and unfounded allegation is mind-boggling. While the protracted crisis between the workers and the NWC is unfortunate and disturbing, dragging the governor of Kogi state, Capt. Idris Wada, into the crisis is condemnable. That a fictitious NGO with a non-existent character as its coordinator had to be created for the sole purpose of mischief, further demonstrates the desperation of certain power mongers”
“We remain unperturbed by their campaign of calumny, as the governor’s allegiance and focus remains with the people of Kogi and improving the fortunes of the state.
They know the Governor wouldn’t be drawn into a tirade, so they can just wake up anytime and recklessly publicize their malicious allegations. The unfortunate thing for them is that most people in Kogi always sees through their ruse, no matter the disguise or a concocted sincerity”, he finally added.
Further investigations revealed that the propaganda against the governor heightened after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) released the timetable for elections in Kogi and Bayelsa. Tackling the matter in another dimension, a very senior party official of the state, who spoke under the condition of anonymity went on to explain the well- known source of the fabrications. “Observers in the political affairs of Kogi State have been regaled with various baseless allegations in the past weeks. These desperate characters have pulled out one trick after the other from their bag of tricks. Having successfully failed at influencing the opinions of the people of the state, and now at their wits end, they have resorted to medieval and diabolical tactics. When probed further about whom he referred to as the orchestrators of this campaign, the party chieftain responded saying, “Everyone knows them”.
“Over the last 4 years, a certain individual with his negligible amount of followers have been crying wolf about a dubious primary election they purportedly won. The people of Kogi are not forgetful about the controversy that clouded that primary election, when the lights where mysteriously turned off, and a candidate who was losing before the lights went out suddenly emerged as the winner after the lights came back on. The Supreme Court declared those primaries as unconstitutional and ordered that new primaries are held. Having lost woefully in the constitutionally recognized primaries, they have full cylinders on their arsenal of propaganda and mud slinging. The recently concluded state congress, which was adjudged by all and sundry to be free, fair and transparent, has separated the wheat from the chaff. It proved that our amiable Governor is very much on ground politically contrary to what these set of mudslingers would rather have the general public through sponsored propaganda ”
“The propaganda isn’t only from within the party, but also from the opposition party. While we are very aware of the elements and characters behind the falsehood machinery within the party, and are taking decisive actions to deal with them, we are also very watchful of the tactics of the opposition party. We know some of their most-used tools include propaganda and stoking the embers of disaffection amongst party faithful”
When asked if the crisis at the national level was also being replicated at the state level, the party chieftain responded, “That is the sole objective of their mischief – to sow discord. There is no crisis within the state chapter of the party. You can do your own independent findings. These characters have neither political relevance nor electoral credibility. For instance, just go and check how woefully the same character lost his polling unit in the last elections, or his unexplainable absence at either of the ward congresses or the state party congress. You would at least expect that with their continuous claims of popularity and political relevance, they would have at least been present at the recently conducted state congress elections.”
Meanwhile, the crisis between the staff of the PDP and its NWC is drawing to a close, as key Members of the Party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) have started intervening with a view to reaching an amicable solution within the shortest possible time.
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