Gov Yahaya Bello

By Richard Elesho

In a move critics have described as a witch-hunt, the Kogi State Government has directed civil servants, notably heads of ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs to submit details of their stewardship and the result of the November 16th election in their wards and polling units respectively.

Civil servants are already jittery over the development.

The Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Mrs. Folashade Ayoade in an internal memo dated 28th November issued the directive. captioned ‘Submission of your stewardship to New Direction Administration.”

The SSG gave one week window within which the required information must be submitted.

The response must include the following details:

Name:
Local Government Area:
Office(s) held:
Duration:
Ward:
Polling Unit (PU):
Results of Election in PU and Ward:
Remarks:

Since the memo became public Monday, tongues have been waging over its real intention. The governor, Alh. Yahaya Bello has just won a keenly contested election. There are fears the new directive may be to determine whether a particular worker supported the governor’s second term bid and won his/her Ward or Polling Unit for him.

A civil servant, who preferred not to be named said he was worried the move might end up in the sack or victimisation of those who did not win in their areas.

But the government has cleared the air on the memo and allayed the subsequent fear of victimisation by workers.

Fielding questions from journalists in Lokoja on Tuesday, the Director General of Media and Publicity to the Governor, Kingsley Fanwo said the hues generated by the memo was “unnecessary”.

He said: “Our attention has been drawn to an internal memo illegally circulated on the social media and the mischievous meanings read into the memo.

“We wish to make it clear that the memo was nothing but a routine data collation for the purposes of research and planning. It has nothing to do with the falsetto of a falsehood that the memo was aimed at political vendetta.

“The Governor has intrinsic confidence in his outgoing aides as people of impeccable loyalty to the development of our dear State. Their incredible contributions to the electoral success of the Governor and the All Progressives Congress are not in doubt.

“Our research office will collate all the results and analyze them for planning. All the three Senatorial Districts gallantly stood in defense of our EBIGO concept as they saw a bigger picture of a united Kogi State.”