The Ebiraland Youths Coalition has appealed to the Federal Government to ensure that nothing happens to the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
The youth made their position known on Sunday in a statement signed by its Coordinator, Fache Onimisi Moses.
They said that some people in high places, conniving with other ethnic bigots from Kogi State, were working tirelessly, not only to put the former governor’s life in harm’s way, but also to ridicule the entire people of Ebiraland.
They said the simultaneous actions of the Department of State Services and Nigeria Police to withdraw the security guards of the former governor, not minding the subsisting court order restraining the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from arresting him, showed the connivance of powerful people, who possibly wanted Bello eliminated by all means.
“The action of the Police and DSS has now made the former governor vulnerable and the youths of our land will be left with no other options than to defend our own even if it’s with our bare hands if the harassments continue unabated,” the Ebira youths declared.
The statement called on President Bola Tinubu to rise to the occasion to stop the unwarranted harassment of the former governor by EFCC, which itself is a creation of the law.
It noted that if the commission felt dissatisfied with the restraining order given to the former governor by the Kogi State High Court, it could use all legal means available to it to vacate the order rather than engaging in its “current shameful actions”.
The coalition also advised some youths of the other ethnic groups in the state to be mindful of how they use the social media to malign Bello and his ethnic group, nothing that their actions were capable of truncating the peace currently enjoyed in the state.
The statement reminded the youths of Kogi East Senatorial District of the role played by youths of Kogi Central Senatorial District when former Governor Abubakar Audu was brought to court in handcuffs by the EFCC after he left office.
It said the youths of the Central Senatorial District believed that the humiliation by EFCC was a slap on the collective sensibility of the people of the state and they mobilised to protest right before the court and that made the arraignment almost impossible at that time.
They therefore cautioned that if some Kogi East Senatorial District youths were now taking to the social media to celebrate Bello’s ordeal and maligning Ebira people, that calls to question their sense of appreciation and that it will have repercussions.
