The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the November governorship election in Kogi State, Dino Melaye, claimed that the current governor of the State, Yahaya Bello, is seeking a third term through a proxy.
Bello, who is nearing the end of his second term as governor of Kogi, is supporting his party’s nominee, Ahmed Ododo, to succeed him, but Melaye feels the governor is attempting to retain power through Ododo.
“Don’t be deceived that Yahaya Bello is not on the ballot. Ododo is physically on the ballot but Yahaya Bello is the one seeking a third term through a proxy.
“I will not want this debate to be about Yahaya Bello, rather I would like to market my political party and market what we have for Kogi State,” Melaye said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday.
The former lawmaker representing Kogi West in the Senate said he was confident of unseating the ruling APC because it had happened before in 2003 when the PDP unseated Abubakar Audu.
He added that even though Yahaya Bello was the governor in 2019, he still won his senatorial election under the PDP.
Melaye said the Kogi West and Central Leaders Forum accessed the three contestants from the zone after which he was endorsed as the choice of the zones.
While acknowledging that all the candidates from the Kogi West and Central are qualified to govern the state, Melaye insisted that he is the most qualified, saying that he is the most educated, most exposed, and most experienced of all the candidates.
“It’s not debatable. I was a member of the House of Reps and I was voted twice as senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Leke Abejide is a member of the House of Reps but I was in the House of Reps 17 years ago.
“And the governorship of Kogi State is not a learning ground. It’s a place you need people who definitely must have managed human and material resources over the years,” Melaye argued.
The PDP candidate said with the enormous resources in Kogi State, he will have no business running to Abuja for allocation which he claimed is what the current administration of Yahaya Bello is doing.
He also promised to improve the education sector of Kogi State, alleging that the university in the state could be likened to a glorified secondary school.
According to him, there is no functional primary school in the state.