 Govna Yahya Bolo and the Social Democratic Party candidate, Murtala Ajaka, is in a tough battle over Kogi State elections and court's grand fractional Labour Party in the most state's right to contest in the upcoming elections. This is cross politics, I'm Mary Anna Compton. The political tussle between the Kogi State, Govna Yahya Bolo and the Social Democratic Party SDP candidate, Alhaji Murtala Yahya Kubu Ajaka, is taking a new twist as the electorates get prepared for the November 11 Govnorship election. The election, which is less than 150 days away, is already generating tension. The National Working Committee of the Social Democratic Party SDP calls on Nigeria's President Balatinebo to investigate the recent attack on its Govnorship candidate, Mr. Murtala Ajaka. Nigeria's Electoral Body, the Independent National Electoral Commission, has shadowed to hold the Govnorship election of the Kogi State, of Kogi State, I beg your pardon, on the 11th of November 2023. Joining us live to discuss this is Rufus Ayeneba. He is the National Publicity Secretary of the Social Democratic Party SDP. Thank you so much, Mr. Ayeneba, for joining us. Good evening. Thank you. Great. Let's go straight to it. Most recent about the Kogi State elections is the fact that a story was put out talking about the attack on your humanitarian candidate. Let's talk about that briefly before we go into other things. What exactly do you as a party spokesperson, what do you think would have precipitated or could have allowed for such an attack to happen? Is Kogi State known for these kinds of political violence? Has it ever been the case? I thank you for bringing this to the table. We have a Govnorship election in Kogi State, which I shall do for November 11th, and we have 18 political parties participating. The SDP happens to be one of the front-line political parties in the race, with Alhaji Murta-lai, Yakubo Ajaka as the SDP candidate. Prior to this time, prior to the time he became a candidate, he was actually a member of the ruling party, and they had their issues there, the internal contradictions and all of that. When he moved to the SDP, where he was able to get the kind of ambience needed for the democratic process, a long playground for everyone, for everybody to be shot up on the ground of sentiments of ethnicity, race, religion or whatever, or class. So the party provided the platform and he contested the parameters and got the ticket and was nominated, valiantly nominated by the party. But the truth of the matter is ever since he became the candidate of the party, obviously the ruling party in the state recognized the fact that he is a major threat to, that is a candidate to beat. And that is what accounts for all the attacks on him and all the shenanigans going on in the state. So you just literally played into my next question because I was going to ask, as he has obviously been a member of the ruling party before now, and then cross-capitated into your party, I was going to ask what sort of threat he might pose to the ruling party, again you have mentioned that there are 18 other contestants, why should he be a target? Now the threat that he poses to the ruling party derived from the fact that he was a frontline aspirant to clinch the ticket of that party, but somehow he was manipulated out, he was pundered out of the party and due to his popularity, and if you are popular you are popular, anywhere you get to within the constituency you will be recognized as such. So when he was unable to be allowed to perform his fundamental right of contesting to vote and be voted for, he moved into a place that provides the essential ambience for his democracy. So that is how popular he is, and since he moved in here, he has become the major force, he has become a movement, a big movement in going to this electoral contest for the Duba race in Kogi State. I asked the question that I didn't necessarily get an answer to, so I'm going to rephrase it. At the beginning I said, I do not know Kogi State to be this ruthless when it comes to elections, nor the violence, maybe a few of it would have been recorded in the past elections, the presidential elections, we saw allegedly how the governor of the state excavated a part of the road to stop some contestants from getting across to the other side, but I want to know, why would all of a sudden this election that is kindly contested become so violent? Is Kogi State now gradually becoming a haven for electoral violence? Thank you. There is no denying the fact that the record of Kogi State in elections, the records have not been that pleasant. We recall what happened in 2019, how violence was unleashed on the people, leading to the killing, Christian murder of a woman, a woman, leader in one certain local government in Eastern Central Street, who was linked and killed and bombed alive in her home, and several other residences of violence in the 2019 election. So to say that Kogi has suddenly become a violence, this may not be correct, violence has been associated with Kogi elections, especially the Guba elections, and we recall in 2019 the action against, on our state secretary there, when we had a female presidential candidate in the name of Natasha Kogi, who belongs her to the state secretary, even to the point of beating up of physically, physical assault and several other assaults and intimidation. So we just hope and pray that in 2019 that the attack on our government can happen, they are right there in the process of the INEG chairman and the commissioner of police and all of that. The records are there. So we are not, nothing new, it's just that the dimension is getting so worrisome. It used to be, it used to be the party in power and possibly PDP, but PDP has become, it's back to the background, it's SDP now that is the major focus, because SDP is the major threat to the government of the day. Since you are the spokesperson of the party, let me ask you a very direct question before we go to other issues. Before Ajaka moved from the APC to your party, can you explain to me why your party did not necessarily have a governorship candidate before Ajaka moved? There was a candidate, there was a candidate, we had, you know, the law allows the party to change, there's a window for the change of candidate who had an idea, an idea by the electoral act and all of that. That was what Ajaka explored and became, we had a candidate, but when Ajaka came in, the candidate who was there voluntarily withdrew his candidature and Ajaka, so that was already happened. So it was, primary election was conducted and when Ajaka was to come in, a replacement primary had to be conducted and that was what the process was, so it was not as if there was a vacuum or there was no candidate, we had a ballot in a military candidate before the window of the substitution came in and Ajaka explored that. Let's talk about some of the accusations that Ajaka has levelled against the governor, the sitting governor, Yahya Bello, he has said in our quote, he said, Bello is in the business of framing up political opponents as criminals. Now apparently in a statement signed by the director of communications, Farooq Aoudu, which is of the campaign organization of the Kogi, well he accused the Kogi state government of misinforming the public. Now we obviously know that Governor Yahya Bello is the sitting governor and many would say that whatever comes from the governor's or the governor's spokesperson, everybody would want to believe that that is not fake news but when your candidate says that the public is being misinformed and he's framing his political opponents as criminals, what exactly does this mean? And of course I know that you are from Kogi state, so you'd have a clearer picture of what exactly is happening here. The simple answer to that is when you look at the record, you'll recall that the government of the day in Kogi state, even within its political party, they had cases of people being roped into and being tacked, carers and all of that, for not following a line, doing the bidding of the authorities. The specific point here, the specific example was the case of about 8 or 7 or 8 House of Assembly members of the members of that party that were tacked terrorists and they were suspended even from the house, from sitting until their constituents rose out in strong defense of their integrity and all of that and they had to have turned that and quashed those charges and brought them back. So what we're saying is that it is not a perfect assertion that if you have issues with the government of the day, you could. All Nigeria should recall the traumatic experience of the San Ito Dino Melayem, the government of the day in Kogi in the past, now it is Ajaka that has become the nightmare and so all sorts of profiling, negative profiling is being directed at him. So to say that for our candidate to have declared that if you have issues with the government or with the governor, you will be profiled as a terrorist or whatever, cannot be disputed because it has happened even to his own members in the same party in the past. Eight members of the APC in the House of Assembly were tacked and charged for terrorism or whatever and framed up until they were not free from all of that until people rose in strong defense and the public outcry was overwhelming and they had to remove that tack from them and got them back to the fold. So it is not out of place to say that anybody who is a political opponent who poses a major threat to the government of the day automatically becomes a criminal. It could be tacked just to discredit them and give them a bad name. Let's talk more about the personality of your governorship candidate here. Let's talk about Ajaka and his capability or his ability to deliver. Now you have said rightly that he used to be a member of the All Progressive Congress walking closely with the sitting governor and now of course is a member of the SDP. Why should the average Kogi person look to the SDP for saving or for good governance? I mean those who would swear that the governor of Kogi State has done his best in putting Kogi on the map and there are also others who would say that he's not been able to live up to any of the promises that he's made. Why should your candidate be the one to get the votes? Well it's simple to put on the table. The SDP has a very beautiful, robust manifesto and a relatable history. There's a party that is known for social justice, a party that is harder to serve a common man. It's a pro-people and pro-Nigeria political party. So having Ajaka coming in with his z-dynamism and the energy that he carries is going to run with that manifesto and the andeuro-yogba party and just make life more meaningful for Kogai. All these facetage salaries, all these no pension payments and the amenities, social justice, the people who have not seen for years who began to see a new lease of life. So basically it is just doing the right things and doing justice to deliver it on mandate. It's what it's going to do and then you just agree with me that if we are able to bet a man who has a vision and who has the right mind to do, to unleash the latent potential of the state. Is there a tolerance in agriculture? The human resource that the state has met, Kogai has no business with poverty. Kogai state is bordered with 10 states and what that means is that you have been close to over 40, close to 50 million Nigerians are running to do and that is an age market that you can explore in terms of transportation, in terms of tourism, in terms of even investment opportunities and all of that. And so if you have someone who is willing and who has the right understanding and the right orientation about social development and the right people's investment, who get the state going and removed from the change in narrative of a state that is not just working because the potentials have been lightly out. Finally, for Anadjaka, many people would want to, for those who do not know him before now, what has he done that? He has not, it's not that he's a complete... No, no, no, yes, I know. I know he's been in the political circle but for the other person who wants to know who he is, what has he done that would make people say that, well, we've seen what he's done here and then we can trust him with the state and the affairs of Kogai State. What has he done? Yes, Anadjaka has been in the political system for over 15 years. Don't forget, he was a member of the National Working Committee of the ruling party as the deputy national public secretary of the party for years and sitting at the highest level of decision making of a party. And the record of what he's done in touching lives in Kogai speak value across the territorial districts. So, and this is in his own private capacity. So I want to know if he has a platform of the state, the instrument of power to sit and provide the affairs of the state to administer, to bring creative ideas and creative solutions to challenges as the difference will be felt. Greatly, Kogai, we don't need... We are not looking for any miracle worker. What we need is somebody with a basic understanding of development and the right vision and understanding of right investment in unleashing our potential, getting people inspired, galvanizing the population and attracting... I'm sorry, when you say getting people inspired, I mean, if we're all looking for one of those inspirational people, then we'd probably go on Instagram or go to your pastor for inspiration. Why would you have to vote for somebody who's going to tell us to aspire to... You have to get people galvanized to positive actions to believe in the state, to really even look in the direction of that. A lot of Kogai in that's what I'd add, they don't have any business, they're not even in touch with the state in the last 10, 8 years because the Canadian environment is not there. So, if you have somebody who will make life, who will make a living in Kogai, putting the basic infrastructure in place, they'll get inspired to look in the direction of the state to bring their own contribution in terms of foreign direct investment, in terms of bringing their expertise and network to the table to add value to the development process. That is what I mean by getting people inspired and galvanized. Well, I want to say thank you. Rufus Ayene, I beg your pardon. Thank you so much for joining us and we wish you all the best come November 11th. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. We'll take a quick break. When we return, we will be discussing the court's approval of the Labour Party faction to participate in the Emo State elections. Stay with us, we'll be right back.