Yahaya Bello: Why Kogi Governor was stoned after Juma’at prayers

The Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, who was reportedly stoned at a mosque in Lokoja, says the attackers were sponsored political miscreants.

Bello was said to have been attacked on Friday, August 26, after Juma’at service at Central Mosque, Old Market, by angry residents who claimed that the governor was spending state funds on celebrations when he owed them salaries.

But Bello, in a statement signed by his press secretary, Kingsley Fanwo, said the attack was carried out by ‘imported’ thugs contracted by his political enemies.

“We are not unaware of scheming by change resistors to sponsor attacks against government officials. Sponsoring attacks against the Governor will not stop our march to restore sanity to the polity,” Fanwo said.

He also attributed the attack to a raging ‘syndrome’ occasioned by his sweeping reforms in the state’s civil service, promising that the names of those suffering from it will soon be published.

“The administration of Governor Yahaya Bello will soon publish the names of corrupt citizens of the state who are behind the Ghost Workers syndrome.”

The recent attack is coming two weeks after he was reportedly involved in a similar incident while visiting Ankpa, the headquarters of Ankpa Local Government Area of the state.