Secret Reporters No place to hide
Amuda Dan Sulaiman Fab
The desperation of Governor Yahaya Bello’s faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State has moved to compel all the 21 local government Administrators in the state to rent 500 persons from each council area to attend the party’s mega rally held at the Conference Stadium, Lokoja, yesterday, bringing the total figure of the rented crowd from the councils at N10,500.
The directive to rent the crowd, according to our findings, was conveyed to the council Administrators in a text message sent to their telephone lines last week.
The message reads: “Dear Administrator, directive from leadership that all Administrators MUST mobilize 500 people each from their LG to the state APC mega rally at Confluence Stadium, Lokoja on 17/2/2018 by 10am. Please all Administrators MUST be in attendance.”
Aggrieved party sources said the directive will cost tax-payers a whooping sum of N210 million or more because each local government has already voted N10 million each for the event.
It was also gathered that the cost could be more as some council Administrators also seize such opportunity to pad the figures up and fill their own pockets.
On its part, the state government, aside the purchase of a trailer load of textile materials with President Muhammadu Buhari and Bello’s inscription on the clothes, Yahaya Bello also chartered a helicopter that airlifted the APC National Chairman, Chief John Oyegun from Abuja to Obajana.
Upon the millions of Naira expended for the mega rally, only Alhaji Yahaya Karaku, former Okene Local Government Council Chairman defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to APC at the event yesterday.
Indeed, the youths mobilized to the mega rally were paid N5,000 each as appearance fee.
This is happening in a State where workers have not been paid their salaries for several months. Teachers are still been owed many months salaries.
The Lokoja township roads where millions of naira was invested into by the past administration have been abandoned due to “lack of fund”, yet the governor has the fund to rent crowd for his endorsement for second term.
