The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) says it is alarmed by what it described as a “disturbing video of Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State inciting his supporters, threatening to burn and unleash maximum violence on Nigerians during the 2023 general elections.”
Debo Ologunagba, the party’s national publicity secretary, in a statement, on Wednesday, recalled the video, where Governor Bello was heard issuing terrorism threats in which he said, “I will personally light a fierce fire in my hand whoever want it, we shall use it to burn them, whoever survive it will thank God… Whoever is against us we will make him or her join my mother and lie with her (my mother) in the grave.”
By FBI definition, terrorism is the “unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives”.
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The party said the brazen threat by “Governor Yahaya Bello raises apprehensions in the public space to inflict violence on Nigerians ahead of the 2023 general elections just because they have rejected the corrupt, divisive and rudderless All Progressives Congress (APC), which failure is most manifest by Yahaya Bello’s abysmal performance in Kogi State.
The PDP also recalled “how the Bello-led Kogi State government was accused of breeding and arming thugs as well as fake security operatives to harass and attack Nigerians in Kogi State during the 2019 general elections.
The PDP, therefore, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately call Yahaya Bello to order and place him and his supporters on a security watch list as threat to democracy ahead of the 2023 general elections.
“Our party also charges the Inspector General of Police to immediately commence a comprehensive investigation into the activities of Governor Yahaya Bello with a view to nipping this ugly trend in the bud as well as prosecuting him at the end of his tenure as governor of Kogi State.
