Ajaka’s aide, Isaiah Davies Ijele, said in a statement on Sunday that Yahaya Bello, the state governor, had attempted to assassinate his boss.
Little more than a month before the state’s governorship election, he claimed that the governor hired goons to remove the SDP candidate.
In a statement, he claimed that “thugs loyal to the Executive Governor of Kogi State, Alh. Murtala Yakubu Ajaka, today attempted to assassinate my principal and candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Koton Karfi.”
Thugs and hired assassins ambushed Ajaka’s campaign road, firing randomly on his convoy in an intentional effort to take his life and harm or murder his followers. To repel the terrible, planned, and unprovoked attack, the security apparatus had to work together.
He bemoaned that some SDP supporters had suffered fatal injuries, adding that some of the party’s campaign materials had been ruined and that some people had been terrified.
Ijele urged the Federal Government and security agencies to call the governor to order, saying no individual is greater than the laws of the land. In a swift reaction, the Kogi State Police Command said it received a report on the purported attack on the SDP campaign in the Koton-Karfe area of the state.
William Ovye Aya, a spokesman for the state’s police department, reported that several people were thought to have been hurt during the incident.
He expressed sympathy to all those who had been hurt by political violence in the state and harshly denounced the act.
According to the police spokesman, Bethrand Onuoha, the commissioner of police, has mandated an investigation into the incident.
“The CP further directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) to commence a thorough, diligent, and wholistic investigation of all acts of political violence, accusations, and counter-accusations against all the political parties and actors with a view to bringing all offenders to book,” he said in a statement.
The Command pledges its steadfast dedication to safeguarding everyone’s lives and property in the State, according to the CP.