Faleke mocks Yahaya Bello: What do you know about elections? You haven’t even won councillorship seat

James Faleke, running mate to late Abubakar Audu in the 2015 gubernatorial election in Kogi state, says Yahaya Bello, governor of Kogi state, got his position as a gift.

In a statement on Tuesday, Faleke said the governor has never contested any election and won.

Faleke said this while reacting to comments credited to Bello that President Muhammadu Buhari would garner more votes in Kogi than in Katsina, his home state, if he seeks re-election.

Faleke, who was a former campaign coordinator for Buhari in Lagos, said the governor is not capable of such feat “in view of the level of his unpopularity in the state”.

“It is the height of deceit and folly for a governor who is notorious for neglecting the welfare of the citizens of his state by owing them several months of unpaid salaries and pensions, a governor who cannot even provide basic infrastructure like water, road, and hospitals, to boast of being able to lead the same citizenry who are daily dying of hunger to vote en masse for President Buhari,” the statement read.

“I refer to a boastful statement credited to Governor Yahaya Bello that Kogi state would garner more votes for President Buhari in 2019 than Katsina state and I ask myself why is the Governor fooling himself thinking he is fooling Nigerians.

“First, the governor has never contested for any election and won before. Not even councillorship election. The governorship seat he is occupying today, he didn’t campaign for. He was simply gifted the seat, so how can such a person stand to discuss election issues?

“How can a governor who is not registered as a voter in his state and has no voting rights mobilize votes for no less a person than Mr President? So when elections are being discussed, he should be told to keep quiet.”

Faleke said the question to be asked is if Buhari will win Kogi under Bello as “chief campaigner”.

“The answer is no. This is because he has killed the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, demoralized and dehumanized the citizenry with his policies, thereby stripping us of critical campaign issues in the state.”