SDP boss defends senatorial hopeful
Senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kogi State, Chief (Mrs.) Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has said the state government is in the best position to answer questions relating to insecurity in the state.
The state government had called on security agencies to invite Mrs. Akpoti-Uduaghan for questioning over alleged terrorism-related activities capable of dragging the state back to “the dark era”.
The Yahaya Bello government said despite its heavy security interventions to rid the state of terrorism, politicians had deliberately continued to groom terrorists in the state as well as import them from neighbouring states.
In a statement in Lokoja, on Sunday, the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Kingsley Fanwo, the government alleged that the senatorial hopeful had shown enough reason to be invited over terrorism-related activities, especially with the manner the PDP and other organisations linked to her had been advocating for the release of a suspected terrorist, known as Shafiu.
In a statement, yesterday, the Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the state, Mouktar Atimah, described the declaration that Akpoti-Uduaghan be invited for questioning as laughable.
Atimah said: “Chief of Staff to the Kogi Governor publicly declared that the state government granted Shafiu a pardon. He went ahead to accept that the governor handed Shafiu over to him and has been in his care ever since. He also cited instances where he gave Shafiu money for upkeep on different occasions. They had a misunderstanding and Shafiu left their camp and switched to PDP. Three days later, he was re-arrested by the same government that granted him a pardon.
“Now you want Akpoti-Uduaghan to be arrested for accepting a supposed free citizen into her camp, even as there was no evidence of any dealing between these two. Pictures and videos of your principal and this same person you termed a terrorist are everywhere.”
According to him, if truly Shafiu is a terrorist as alleged by Fanwo, then the Governor and his Chief of Staff need to be invited by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) and Force Headquarters (FHQ) for questioning.