Insecurity: Nigeria Will Be Safe If Politicians Stop Using Thugs For Election- Kogi Governor

The Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello has revealed that Nigeria will be a safe place when politicians desist from using criminals and political thugs for election.

Bello who spoke during a Channels TV broadcast on Wednesday revealed that before he became governor, thuggery and use of criminals was the order of the day during elections in the state.

READ ALSO: COVID-19: Don't Waste Funds On Vaccines- Kogi Governor Tells FG

Further revealing that the political thugs who were employed for political exercise become something else after being abandoned by the politicians, Bello said:

“When politicians begin to stop the use of thugs, touts, or some group of criminal that is when we will begin to have safety and security.

“When I came on board, I inherited a state that was largely divided along several lines. For you to aspire to be anything politically in Kogi State then, you must have what we call ‘boys’ or thugs or touts and then use it to intimidate people during political dispensations.

“Once the political exercise is over, the so-called boys or thugs or foot soldiers would be abandoned and left to themselves and by that, they breed into something else or a hydra-headed monster that you will not be able to curb at the end of the day. There are several histories, records, and intelligence to that effect across the country.

“But I refused to play that kind of dangerous or unnecessary politics when I came on board. My ascension to the office is known to everybody across the world. I chose my path immediately and decided to deal with criminals irrespective of political affiliations by simply utilising the laws passed by the Kogi State House of Assembly and the existing security architecture,” he said.

He added:

“I won my election free and square. The police, the DSS, the military, and all law enforcement agencies have their facts. Don’t listen to the lies they peddle out there. When I see those things, I simply laugh and say how I wished they come to Kogi State to see for themselves.

“There was no time in my campaign that any of my supporters or followers goes into the destruction of billboards, signposts, or installations of the state government, before, during, and after the election. I can say this boldly.”

The Governor who further spoke on the death of a women-leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who was burnt to death by suspected political thugs during the state's governorship election said that investigations were ongoing to bring the culprit behind the death of  Acheju Abuh to book.