Today is 27th of January 2020, the supposed date for the inauguration of the elected Government by the people of Kogi State, but of course the opposite is the case today for reasons best known to you all. We are in the home of the heroine of the election of the popular mandate that Kogi people gave to the PDP and its candidate. Instead of the celebration we are here to mourn the temporary death of democracy in Kogi State. The heroine of the struggle is no other person than Mrs Salome Acheju Abu. We set aside today as the day we visit the family to mourn her death which I think is the beginning of genuine democracy in our dear State. We likened what is happening in the capital city of the State Lokoja today as a case of somebody who stole a vehicle that is not his own. Basically the person can not drive the vehicle around publicly. That is why the inauguration has become an invitation affair. Basically In a popularly elected scenario there would have being celebration in town and the Stadium would be agog but of course we learnt that there is tension in Lokoja, it has become like a birthday party where invitations are sent to people who conceived with them to rig the election to perpetrate the violence, so I say it is like a stolen thing he cannot enjoy it publicly. But I assure the people, I assure all of you present here, the family of this late woman leader that that struggle, that popular victory for PDP for the people of Kogi State would come back soon. Like you know we are in court, because we believe the judiciary is the hope of the common man. Because we are law abiding citizens of the State we decided to just address the press without protests because at the end of the day, we know and we hope it would be, judiciary would be the last hope when this mandate would be returned to the people.
I have to console nobody than Mr. Abu who of course is the worse hit because the life of the home sacrificed her soul for democracy and the people of Kogi State. Right now Kogi State is under bondage, Kogi State is being ruled by people who don’t even care about them. They popularly elected us but of course they used the powers at their disposal to frustrate the efforts of the people. I want to use this opportunity to assure the people of the State that we didn’t want to just stay aloof and allow this day to go without mourning this woman, without mourning what happened in Kogi State, without mourning what I will call the dark day today in Kogi State, because the Government being sworn in secretly is not the one they voted for but with time the truth will come out.
Alhaji Dabo Dantalle
It is very unfortunate we are here doing this today while those who believe they have the naked power to enthrone Government with the blood of the innocent in Kogi State, but it is unfortunate. I strongly believe that whatever is happening today is not something that will last, it is just a temporary arrangement that is why the the Government is doing the inauguration like a kitchen arrangement and it has to be strictly on invitation, if not, the innauguration of a popularly elected Government supposed to be a public affair for both the incoming and the outgoing Government to celebrate. But in this case, it is something different and something that will not last at least for the blood of those that lost their lives particularly madam Salome Acheju Abu whom I know to be a woman for all irrespective of party and religious affilliation, she is a mother and I know that this will not go unpunished, those that are involved directly or indirectly be brought to book and must be digraced by Gods grace.
Mr Abu
We have not much to say other than to say we appreciate your presence, my wife the light of the home is put off. She left as a political celebrity. If look at the departures of women in Nigeria, starting from Hajia Gambo Sawaba from the North, Kudirat Abiola from the West, Margaret Ekpo from the South South and here in the North central is Salome Acheju my wife. The way she left is different from how others left, she was burnt alive for the cause of the land. We pray that the land and the God we serve will give us justice.
I dont have any Government because these guys that did it were chanting a song praising their Godfather. They were shooting sporadically scaring people away from the home. I have written petition to the President, I have made my statement with the police, I have done the statement with the public and will remain consistent that my wife was burnt alive for the trust she had for democracy and for PDP.
We have forgiven those who did it if Government forgives them so be it. But these guys are there beating their chest and swinging their hands, nodding their heads that they have succeeded, they are there moving freely. Do we have justice? Already their names are with the police, how much of arrest have they done? We have been told some are already in their nets, those that are in their nets are not those that they arrested directly but those that came for robbery three days after they murdered my wife, those are the ones they arrested as armed robbers and some of them confirmed to be part of the act. The real culprits are there and they named their sponsors, they are there.
In my statement I also named some people and in the appropriate time more names are coming. We called for justice. We are human beings even if all of them are killed with their families, my wife will not come back but we need to be rehabilitated. Four houses fully furnished in the compound burnt to ashes what do we do other than justice. The woman believed that PDP was the right party to rule the State.