The Minister of Steel Development, Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu, has raised the alarm over alleged threat to his life following the ongoing Kogi State Gubernatorial Election Tribunal.
The Minister, who accused the Kogi East Critical Stakeholders KECs of orchestrating the threat, refuted the recent “concocted and fabricated” allegations against him by members of the KECs.
He was responding to a communiqué issued at the end of the emergency meeting of Kogi East Critical Stakeholders (KECS) held on 2nd April, 2024 in Abuja.
Prince Audu, while speaking at a press conference through the Head of Secretariat of Prince Abubakar Audu Political Structure in Kogi East, Emmanuel Ekele warned the Sule Iyaji led KECs to be mindful of criminal intimidation over their move.
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A statement made available to newsmen during the press briefing said “the offence of the Minister against the KECS was that he supported his Party the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last Kogi Governorship election against their interest”.
He however, advised the KECS to leave him and the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria President Bola Ahmed Tinubu out of the Kogi State Gubernatorial Election Tribunal, adding that in their desperation, they lack respect for constituted authority, hence fueling their blackmail and frivolous allegation.
The statement reads further: “For the purpose of this rejoinder, we will like to address the points of Kogi East Critical Stakeholders (KECS) as they raised them in their communiqué:
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- Kogi East Critical Stakeholders (KECS) requested for the cancellation of “the purported visit” to the Presidency:- Where sanity rules, I think it is unimaginable to ask someone to cancel a plan based on your own imagination, assumption and fabricated lies. It simply defiles logical reasoning.
- The Honourable Minister is not dragging the traditional rulers into “murky waters of politics” instead we are appealing to you Kogi East Critical Stakeholders (KECS) to stop debasing our traditional institution by bringing the custodians into petty issues just to score some unnecessary points and to blackmail those you assume are opposed to your interest.
- The Honourable Minister Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu is awake to his responsibilities as a Federal Minister and what he should do for his state (Kogi) and his immediate constituency. As Kogi East Critical Stakeholders (KECS), the ideal thing is to advice where there is a need or gap to be filled and not to manufacture issues where non exist.
- The Honourable Minister Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu has no business, absolutely no business interfering in the ongoing Kogi State Gubernatorial Election tribunal which is part of the electoral process, it is also not within his purview hence it’s needless to threaten him of any consequences over what you imagine which does not even exist in the first instance. May we also warn Kogi East Critical Stakeholders (KECS) to be mindful of criminal intimidation.
- The Honourable Minister is concerned at this time with his primary task of reviving the Steel Sector for the good of the nation’s economy and has really no time for the imagined accusations. He was only appointed as Director General of the Governorship Election Campaign by his party the APC. The Election is over and he has since returned to his office.
- We advise Kogi East Critical Stakeholders (KECS) to desist from blackmailing the traditional rulers as the extent their lies are being spread against the custodians of our customs and tradition is capable of causing unease in the land. It is obvious that in the desperation of your sponsors you have lost regard for our highly respected traditional institutions as your allegations against our royal fathers is not only a desecration of our traditional institution but it is also sacrilegious.
- The Honourable Minister Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu has strong faith in our judiciary and wish to advice Kogi East Critical Stakeholders (KECS) to desist from speculations and casting aspersion on the judiciary which is very wrong and misleading.
- We advice Kogi East Critical Stakeholders (KECS) to leave the Honourable Minister of Steel Development Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu and the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria H.E Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR out of Kogi State Gubernatorial Election Tribunal. In your desperation you lack respect for constituted authority as your blackmail and frivolous allegation knows no bound. May we call on the DSS to invite this group to show justification for blackmailing the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This group of ethnic war lords must be made to understand that freedom of speech is not a call for sweeping and unsubstantiated allegations. This is a case that can go as far as Supreme Court why all the panicking and blackmail from this point. The action of Kogi East Critical Stakeholders (KECS) may not be healthy for our judicial system.
- On the demand that the Honourable Minister Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu must take along Alhaji Muritala Yakubu Ajaka if the people of Kogi East must visit the President:- We consider this point laughable because in the first place this is the visit you have condemned and called to be cancelled, why are you interested in it and demanding the inclusion of your sponsor.
You can see that you have betrayed yourselves that all the allegations is simply because you assume that your sponsor is not on the delegation for the visit. Nobody stops anyone from visiting the President so why demand that Alhaji Muritala Yakubu Ajaka must tag along with Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu to visit the President? Kogi East Critical Stakeholders (KECS) should have simply requested the assistance of the Honourable Minister quietly instead of making it a public demand and this is one of the reasons why we see the Kogi East Critical Stakeholders (KECS) as being used by a group of people who have hidden motives but lack integrity in themselves therefore they needed a platform to execute their mission.
- Kogi East Critical Stakeholders (KECS) should clearly know that Kogi East is not a one party region and they shouldn’t be undemocratic by boxing everyone into one corner even against their wishes.
- We advice Kogi East Critical Stakeholders (KECS) to stop issuing threats people as this act portrays their disposition to violence. They should allow people to be themselves and should also know that threatening people without justification amount to criminal intimidation which is an offence under the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. At this juncture may we put it on record that if anything happens to the Honourable minister and or any of his supporters Kogi East Critical Stakeholders (KECS) should be held liable.
- We want to remind Kogi East Critical Stakeholders (KECS) that the Honourable Minister, Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu is not a lawyer neither a judge nor a party at the election petition tribunal, they should focus on their legal team and let him be. The Honourable Minister is a law abiding citizen and the issues at the election petition tribunal is not before him.
- Kogi East Critical Stakeholders (KECS) and Alhaji Sule Iyaji in their hatred laden communiqué challenged the political leadership of the Honourable minister. If we may ask, if the Honourable minister who has visible presence of community development projects across the State in his private status in addition to his present status is not a political leader of the people of Kogi East, is Alhaji Sule Iyaji the leader and where is he leading the people to?