The Governor of Kogi State, Mr. Yahaya Bello, yesterday accused some members of his cabinet of betrayal before and during the just-concluded governorship election in the state, vowing that their acts of betrayal would not be ignored.
Speaking during a closed-door meeting with stakeholders in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lokoja, the state capital, the visibly angry governor, maintained that he would âcut offâ even his fingers if they decided to hinder him from âgoing farâ.
Angry Bello alleged that many of his so-called allies betrayed him because of his choice of Usman Ododo as his successor, describing some of them who he said were going around telling people that he disappointed them in unprintable words.
The governor maintained that he forewarned all of those he alleged to have sold him out, insisting that âall of those disgruntled elementsâ moved against him âafter everything I did for them.â
âI was fighting known enemies while enemies within were pulling me down,â saying âGod punish you allâ.He added: âThey said if it canât be me, then it canât be Ododo. They were busy conniving and conspiring with the opposition. They call themselves leaders, but were misleading the people,â and rained more curses on them.
He told them mockingly that he was smarter than all of them, accusing them of collecting peddling lies against him. âShame on you all,â he said.Bello warned that if he ever heard the âleadersâ threaten any of their subordinates, he would deal with them severely.He singled out a member of the National Assembly from the state whom he said was âwreckedâ by his brothers before he (the governor) revived him from his alleged financial bankruptcy.
âToday, you are a second-term serving senator. You were laughing with us while you went behind to text opposition messages to hinder our party from having 25 per cent in some local governments,â he added.
As governor of Kogi State, Bello said he had outsmarted members of his kitchen cabinet who attempted to sell him out to the opposition and used the occasion to reveal that he would issue a âquestionnaireâ to all the 21 local government chairmen.He added that those who benefitted the most from his government were âthe enemies within causing problems,â insisting that âI virtually provide everything for themâ.