News Editor
“On January 12, 2024, the governor called me, and I told him I was in Bauchi. He said I should come with the state Commissioner of Police and the Director of the DSS. However, before I could arrive from Bauchi, they had finished the meeting. I met the governor after the Jummat prayer, and he said I should meet him in hisBello Bodejo in the cosy company of Governor Sule when the plot was being hatched office. He said he had directed that we should parade the Kungiya Zaman Lafiya with the uniform on January 17, 2024. He told me that he met the Commissioner of Police and the DSS Director.
“I met the Commissioner of Police and asked him if he supported the governor’s idea, and he said yes. When I met the Director of DSS, he said we all knew that what the governor was doing was wrong but that he was the governor; that if I said I couldn’t do it, he might tag me as an enemy of the state and sponsoring bandits. He advised me that I should be wise about it.
“The Deputy Commissioner of Police gave me ₦7,500,000 out of the ₦15,000,000 released by the governor for the transportation of the group members to Lafia and payment for the hall in Lafia
“On January 17, 2024, we assembled all the members in the hall in Lafia. On getting to the venue, I did not see the governor and the SSG. I called the governor, and he told me he was in Abuja because the judgment on his case would come up on January 18, 2024, at the Supreme Court and that I should continue. I asked about the SSG or any governor’s representative. He gave different excuses for their absence. Then I sensed trouble.
“The governor directed that I should march the group to the office of the Commissioner of Police after the ceremony. I did exactly that. However, it dawned on me after the whole exercise that the governor’s agenda was to extricate me from the state so that he could have his way to use the group to his advantage.
“I know that I am the only person who can stop the group from performing some nefarious activities against the Fulani. So now that I am arrested, his purpose has been accomplished because he knows that I never liked the group before he tactically involved me and backed out during the launch.”
Recall that immediately after the launch, Governor Sule appeared on Channels Television celebrating the introduction of the military to the utter bewilderment of the people of Nasarawa State. The same Governor Sule was to recant his support in a further television interview denying ever meeting Bello Bodejo or associating with the group. The our cry from well-meaning people nationwide led to the arrest of Bodejo and since then, the governor has been jittery, embarking on several media appearances personally hoping to douse the fire next time before it comes to a head. Most people in Nasarawa state are of the opinion that the governor will end in trouble because that mandate he now parades was stolen with the help of Nigerain at appeal and supreme courts and retrogressive collaborators. A lady ( name withheld) among those ordered arrested by governor Sule in the aftermath of the Supreme Court verdict of his election said she was innocent and that her only offence was to pray for the rightful winner to emerge. She said, “Those prayers offered by the mothers of Nasarawa will never go in vain insisting that all those who have a hand in the miscarriage of justice will be visited by either the fortune of it or the misfortunes that comes with it. “Wait and see,” she added
(Punch Newspapers) with additional reports from our correspondent in Lafia
