- Urge voters to replicate last outing in State Assembly polls
BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Thousands of women professionals from Kogi Central Senatorial District, on Sunday, trooped out to express their gratitude to voters for turning out en masse to vote, overwhelmingly, for the All Progressives Congress’ candidates in the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections.
The women, who thanked Kogites and Governor Yahaya Bello of the State for the peaceful conduct of the election, said the ‘Thank You’ road walk became necessary in order to demonstrate that women in Central and in the state, generally, were solidly in support of the Governor for giving them the share of voice they had been clamouring for, for years, and to urge him to do more.
Led by notable women professionals in the district, the Kogi Central women took off from Okene Local Government Secretariat, walked through the newly built Reference Hospital, down to Total, and back to the Secretariat, chanting thank you and victory songs as they marched through the streets.
They prayed loudly against what they termed evil spirits that might have been invoked by desperate politicians, saying that “darkness would never overcome light.” Kogi State Coordinator, APC Professional Women Council, Hajia Rekiyat Onaivo, charged Kogi women to replicate their last outing by coming out en masse to vote for APC candidates in the State House of Assembly election, next Saturday.
She said the large turnout during the last presidential and National Assembly election was an indication that women in Kogi central appreciated Governor Yahaya Bello’s result-oriented women inclusive governance. Onaivo Sanni, who is also the Executive Director Kogi Enterprise Development Agency (KEDA), enjoined women to support the current administration to enable it deliver more dividends of democracy to the people of the state, assuring that the Senator-elect, Abubakar Sadiku Ohere, would give good representation at the National Assembly.
The Chairperson of the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists, Anne Olurinde, who also joined the walk, commended the state government for making the state’s resources work for the people, noting that the infrastructure projects undertaken by Governor Bello’s administration were unprecedented in the history of the state.
She said Kogites had enjoyed peace since the Governor assumed office and that, though journalists must be neutral, they also owed the state and the entire nation the duty of responsible journalism devoid of unfounded panic reporting. “We monitored the elections, and considering what Kogi State elections have been like for decades, we can conveniently say it was very peaceful. The elections were free and fair,” Olurinde said, while urging aggrieved parties to seek redress in court to maintain peace.
