GOVERNOR YAHAYA BELLO TAKES DEVELOPMENT TO A HIGHER NOTCH IN KOGI

As the people of Kogi celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the creation of the State, it has been a deluge of accolades for the governor of the State, AlhajiYahaya Bello for the rapid transformation that is taking place in the State under his watch.

In a statement issued in Abuja over the weekend, the Kogi Democratic Forum (KDF) strongly commended Governor Bello for the series of steps he has taken so far to give the State a new lease of life since his assumption of office in January this year.

The leader of the group, AlhajiOzigiOmeiza said that there is a paradigm shift in the political governance of the State which had resulted into an equitable and balanced distribution of appointments and development projects among the three geo-political and cultural groups in the State.

According to Omeiza, no part of the State was being left out in the scheme of things as all the on-going projects especially roads rehabilitation and other infrastructural facilities such as water schemes, schools, health care delivery and agriculture are being fairly distributed across the three Senatorial Zones of the State.

His words: “The emergence of Governor Yahaya Bello`s administration is providential. We are very grateful to God who brought him on board at this point in time to salvage our State from the grips of backwardness and forces of retrogression. He has been fair-minded in the way and manner he is distributing development projects in the State. No part of the Kogi is being left out in the scheme of things.”

He commended the governor for the massive rehabilitation of rural and urban roads going on in the State particularly, Lokoja, the State capital and the connecting roads to other strategic cities in the State.

Within the last eight months he has been on the political saddle, Governor Bello, according to the KDF, has redefined the parameters of governance and given increased and better attention to the welfare and security interests of the people which are the primary purpose of government as stipulated in Chapter 2, Section 14 (2b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

Omeiza said that Bello has mobilized contractors back to all the abandoned critical road projects in the 21 Local Government Areas of the State under the preceding administration.

The KDF noted that the on-going remedial works on thestrategic roads in the State have brought a lot of relief to the people of Kogi and other commuters that must of necessity pass through Kogi to other parts of the country.

AlhajiOmeiza also observed that the anti-corruption programme of the governor was yielding results as he had taken bold steps to block all known areas of financial leakages in the economy of the State through the institutionalization of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) which ensured that all revenues of the State are never diverted into secret or private accounts.

Omeiza and his group further commended the administration of Governor Bello for commissioning a staff audit of the State Civil Service with a view to weeding out ghost workers who have constituted a major drain on the lean resources of the State.

The staff verification exercise according to the group was hugely successful as about sixteen thousand ghost workers were identified and expunged from the payroll of the State. This, they noted, translated to a saving of a whopping N18 billion annually which would now be deployed to provide key infrastructure and other important amenities in the State.

The group also gave kudos to the governor for “the commendable progress he has made in the area of security”. This is evident in the strategic partnership he has forged with the nation`s military high command.

The partnership, according to Omeiza, has resulted into a high-level visit of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen.TukurBuratai to Governor Bello in Lokoja where he pledged to deploy troops to critical roads in the State with a view to routing out kidnappers, armed robbers, cultists, bandits and other sundry criminals that have made lives unbearable for Kogi citizens and commuters especially on the dreaded Lokoja-Okene road.