When Bello’s ego humiliated a sitting Governor and hypocrisy of APC reconciliation in Kogi

Four men. Four different political journeys. Four different constituencies. One common enemy.

Senator Sunday Steve Karimi of Kogi West won his primary fairly and was persecuted for it. Distinguished Senator Jibrin Isah Echocho of Kogi East served two terms with distinction and was blocked from returning for it. His Excellency Yakubu Murtala Ajaka polled 259,052 votes against state power and was betrayed at the reconciliation table for it. Honourable James Faleke refused to bow and is being destroyed by propaganda for it.

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Different men. Different districts. Different stories. Same hand behind every knife.

That hand belongs to one man who declared himself Supreme Leader of Kogi State APC, handpicked candidates from his living room, and turned a once peaceful party into a personal estate where only loyalty to him determines who wins and who is destroyed.

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This is that story. And it must be told in full.

Senator Karimi won his senatorial primary fairly. The Supreme Leader responded by sponsoring court challenges against his victory, suspending all pro-Karimi supporters from the APC, and running to Lagos to lobby powerful figures against him. He returned with shame because Lagos, the people, and the truth stood against every one of his plans. Distinguished Senator Echocho, a two-term Senator who delivered consistent representation to Kogi East, was blocked from returning to the Senate and replaced with an unpopular candidate who will do Bello’s bidding in Kogi East come 2027. Today the same Supreme Leader is sponsoring a campaign of calumny against Hon. James Faleke. Lies. Propaganda. Blackmail. Karimi. Echocho. Ajaka. Faleke. Four names. Three senatorial districts. One author. One ego. One pattern of destruction.

Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State is the Chairman of the APC Presidential Strategy, Conflict Reconciliation and Mobilisation Committee, appointed directly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. When Buni travels to broker reconciliation he does not travel as an individual. He travels as the embodiment of President Tinubu’s own conflict resolution authority. Yahaya Bello received that man in his own residence. Shook His Excellency Ajaka’s hand before witnesses. Posed for photographs distributed across every media platform as evidence of Kogi APC unity. Then executed exactly what he had already planned before Buni arrived. He wrote primary results at Government House at 8AM before a single ballot was properly counted. Installed his own candidate. Threatened Governor Ododo with political destruction if the wrong man won. Blocked a two-term Senator from returning to serve his people. Demanded a signed agreement from His Excellency Ajaka surrendering his constitutional right to contest the governorship. Tried to block Ajaka from the APC Presidential Campaign Council list in Abuja. When Bello dishonoured that reconciliation he did not merely betray Ajaka.

He publicly, deliberately, and contemptuously undermined the Chairman of the APC Presidential Strategy, Conflict Reconciliation and Mobilisation Committee. He treated President Tinubu’s own conflict resolution instrument as irrelevant to his personal agenda. That is not a political misstep. That is institutional treason against the party that gave him everything.

Abuja saw through it. Completely. Decisively. Despite every effort by the Kogi State Government to block His Excellency Ajaka from the Presidential Campaign Council, it did not work. The federal APC appointed Ajaka as Deputy Director II, Support Group Coordination of the APC Presidential Campaign Council over every obstacle Bello placed in his path. The state tried to finish him locally. The federal structure elevated him nationally. His Excellency Ajaka polled 259,052 verified INEC-declared votes in November 2023 without government resources, without security apparatus support, and against the full crushing weight of state power. That is 33.11 percent of every valid vote cast statewide. The largest opposition vote in Kogi State’s democratic history. Those votes cannot be written out of existence at Government House. They live in communities, in wards, in families across all three senatorial districts. The federal APC confirmed their owner with a simple appointment letter that no state government blacklist could stop.

Now after persecuting Karimi, blocking Echocho, humiliating President Tinubu’s own reconciliation chairman, manufacturing Ajaka’s primary defeat, and launching campaigns of calumny against Faleke, the same man is constituting a Reconciliation Committee chaired by Captain Idris Wada with seventeen members and Governor Ododo’s mandate. Who is fooling who? You cannot create crisis, scatter a party, suspend loyal members, block performing senators, humiliate the Chairman of the Presidential Strategy Conflict Reconciliation and Mobilisation Committee, manufacture primary results at Government House at 8AM, and then wear the robe of a peacemaker. That is not reconciliation. That is public relations for tyranny. They did not need reconciliation in May 2026 when they were manufacturing results. They need it now because 2027 is approaching and without Ajaka’s 259,052 votes, Echocho’s Kogi East networks, and Karimi’s Kogi West structure, Kogi State is gone. Atiku Abubakar has the ADC ticket. The opposition is harvesting every grievance Bello created. Any reconciliation that does not begin with full accountability for the compromised May 2026 primary, for the dishonoring of Chairman Buni’s presidential mandate, and for the persecution of Karimi, Echocho, Ajaka, and Faleke is not reconciliation. It is a second performance of the same betrayal dressed in a different chairman’s name and funded by the same ego that dishonoured the first one.

His Excellency Murtala Yakubu Ajaka is the undisputed political leader of Kogi East. Not because a committee says so. Because 259,052 Kogi citizens said so under fire in November 2023. Because President Tinubu’s federal APC confirmed it with an appointment no blacklist could stop. Because the man himself has demonstrated the statesmanship of a leader who places collective interest above personal grievance at every turn. One man facing criminal prosecution in Abuja wants to control everything from outside Government House while Kogi State bleeds. Kogi deserves better. APC deserves better. President Tinubu deserves better from the man who claims to be his greatest supporter while systematically destroying the structures that will deliver his reelection. It is time Kogi State took its party, its dignity, and its future back.

Hon. Adams Yusuf
Political Strategist and Public Affairs Analyst
Kogi State, Nigeria

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