President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to put Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello on a security watchlist.
According to PDP, Bello should be put on a watchlist because he allegedly encouraged terrorism and violence in the nation.
The PDP spokesperson, Debo Ologunagba, was responding to a video in which the governor exhorted his supporters to burn down and commit mayhem against opponents of the All Progressives Congress, or APC, during the 2023 elections.
A statement by Ologunagba said: “In the video, Governor Bello was heard issuing terrorism threats, saying: ‘I will personally light a fierce fire in my hand, whoever wants it, we shall use it to burn them, whoever survives it, will thank God… Whoever is against us we will make him or her join my mother and lie with her (my mother) in the grave.”
“PDP calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately call Governor Bello to order and place him and his supporters on a security watchlist as threat to democracy ahead of the 2023 general elections.”
Ologunagba said Bello had proven critics right that he armed thugs, as well as fake security operatives during the 2019 general elections.
He also urged the Inspector General of Police to commence an investigation into the governor’s action.
“Our party also charges the Inspector General of Police to immediately commence a comprehensive investigation into the activities of Governor Yahaya Bello with a view to nipping this ugly trend in the bud, as well as prosecuting him at the end of his tenure as Governor of Kogi State, ” he added.