22 December 2024

Nothing must happen to Yahaya Bello, Ebira Youth Coalition warns

*Photo: Alhaji Yahaya Bello*

Youths of Ebiraland under the aegis of Ebiraland Youths Coalition have called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to ensure that nothing happens to the immediate past governor of Kogi state, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.

The youths, in a press statement signed by its Coordinator, Mr Fache Onimisi Moses, said that  some people in high places, conniving with other ethnic bigots from Kogi State, were working tirelessly, not only to put the former governor’s life in the harm’s way, but also to ridicule the entire people of Ebiraland.

They said the simultaneous actions of the DSS and Police to withdraw the security guards of the former governor, not minding the subsisting Court order restraining EFCC from arresting him, showed the connivance of powerful people, who possibly wanted Bello eliminated by all means.

“The action of the Police and DSS has now made the former governor vulnerable and the youths of our land will be left with no other options than to defend our own even if it’s with our bare hands if the harassments continue unabated,” the Ebira youths declared.

The statement called on President Ahmed Tinubu to rise to the occasion to stop the unwarranted harassment of the former governor by EFCC which itself is a creation of the law.

It noted that if the commission felt dissatisfied with the restraining order given to the former governor by the State high court, it could use all legal means available to it to vacate the order rather than engaging in its “current shameful actions”.

The Coalition also advised some youths of the other ethnic groups in the state to be mindful of how they use the social media to malign Yahaya Bello and his ethnic group, nothing that their actions were capable of truncating the peace currently enjoyed in the state.

The statement reminded the youths of Kogi East of the role played by youths of Central when Former Governor Abubakar Audu was brought to court in handcuffs by the EFCC after he left office.

It said the youths of Central believed that the humiliation by EFCC was a slap on the collective sensibility of the people of the state and they mobilized to protest right before the court and that made the arraignment almost impossible at that time.

They therefore cautioned that if some Kogi East youths were now taking to the social media to celebrate Bello’s ordeal and maligning Ebira people, that put their sense of appreciation to question and it has repercussions.