News Editor
By Jacob Odobi
There are many surprises in the land, but this one is from he who should protect us.
The threat to lives and peaceful coexistence of the people of Nasarawa state is evidently coming from that quarter.
Prior to the 2023 Gubernatorial election in Nasarawa state, it was crystal clear to all that Gov Abdullahi Sule wasn’t going to win the election for his abysmal performance in his first tenure. Besides, the formidable outting of the opposition PDP candidate, Rt Hon David Emmanuel Ombugadu PhD which showcased his reach, nostalgic antecedents while a member of the House of Representatives gave him unprecedented acceptance across all strata of voters and was a key factor including the presence of grouded election strategy experts like Dr. Mike Omeri formerly if NOA, Labaran Maku, former Minister in the Jonathan years, party chairman, Franc8s Orogu and elder statesman, senator Walid Jibrin, Hon. Architect Jaafaru, Alh.Usman Dubagari, Late Usman Danladi Bagudu, and several others was a colourful, added filip. Sensing the obvious advancing monumental electoral failure, the governor decided to throw caution to the dogs and was ready and willing to do anything possible to retain power, including procuring the now on trial for corruption Vice Chancellor of the University Jos, Professor Tanko Ishaya setting up the state for electoral fraud and also on trial miyetti Allah leader Bello Bodejo for terrorism!
The governor strangely thumped up the religious card to set the Muslims up against their Christian brothers, but the people of the state resisted him vehemently! Such faultlines do not exist in Nasarawa and until the coming of Engr. Sule, it was unheard of. Note that the governor was alleged to have bribed his way through the INEC to get Prof Tanko Ishaya to be appointed as the state’s returning officer .
The governor was on bribing spree from agency to agency and from person to person! The state’s treasury was decimated, and the state couldn’t pay salaries for two months! After the voting, against all persuasions and in the sight of overwhelming evidence, Prof Tanko went ahead to declare the loser as the winner of the election after reportedly receiving huge amount of m cash in bribery from Engr Sule to return him!
The people’s hopes were dashed, the whole state was thrown into mourning for over three months.
The tribunal after careful investigation and assessment of facts, in fairness and for justice, sacked AA Sule without recourse to technicalities but facts of law, and declared Ombugadu of the PDP as the authentic winner of the election. The litigations lingered up to the Supreme Court 9fNigeria where anything could happen. It was obvious that the final judgement was again not going to favour Sule as it seemed he couldn’t find any way to bribe his way through. At this point, he enlisted his godfathers from the far north and the sitting Vice president Kashim Shetima to the rescue.
Similarly, just before the final verdict, at the supreme court, he quickly engaged the additional services of Fulani Militia group to establish a terrorist outfit in Nasarawa state, in an event that the final judgement did not favor him, to unleash terror upon the very people he was bribing his way to govern them by all means! Finally, he fraudulently got the judgement, while news the established Militia became louder and the attendant criticisms from the Nigerian public became a daily affair, afraid, Engr Sule denied the group after earlier celebrations on channels TV and social gathering. Sadly for him, Bodeje was arrested fpr flouting the law. Bodejo is being charged by the federal authorities for three count charges of terrorism. Since the verdict at the supreme court
over four months, the entire state was deserted, and protest broke out in all the major cities in demand for justice and restoration of the stolen mandate of the people. AA Sule used the security to arrest innocent citizens, imprisoned many, and killed a few just to retain power. Many persons were injured and properties destroyed on account of one man’s ill-motivated decision to sell the mandate of the people without any recourse to the consequences on the generality of the entire people of the state!
A few days ago, the news broke out on how Prof. Tanko Ishaya is been grilled by the EFCC for bribery allegations amounting to hundreds of millions.
The prayers of the innocence widows and the citizens of Nasarawa state whose mandate was sold out and the pains they have been subjected to will never go in vain! Today, the weighty confessions of Alh Bello Bodejo, the leader of the Fulani Militia group, on how Gov Abdullahi Sule pressured him into forming the terror group in Nasarawa state, with the state fully financing their activities, against the warning from the DSS and other security experts of the long term consequences this could have on the socio economic wellbeing of the state is a major revelation of the deep rooted anti people’s policies and the wicked intentions of gov Abdullahi Sule!
Corruption is a deadly plague that has eaten deeply into the fabric of our national life, but in Nasarawa state, we have been made to face this terror face to face in addition, for the period that Abdullahi Sule presided over the state. His greed and insatiable hunger for power and ill-wealth is a clear indication that Sule indeed has a penchant for fraud and criminality! An accidental governor who speaks from both sides of his mouth, armed with states power is as dangerous as the terrorists in Nigeria’s Forrests!
To us, this is just the begging of many such revelations. Leadership comes from God with the endorsement of the people you are to lead. When you bribe your way through to emerge, you are setting yourself up for real troubles. As the investigation into the formation and financing of the Fulani Militia group progresses, the people are keenly watching. If the investigation of Bodeje ends without any consequences upon those who brought him, and without any actions from the state assembly on this impeachable offence, then it will be the people against the governor!
