Igala Agenda Runs Into Storm Ahead Of Kogi Polls

A week to the Kogi State governorship election, a bold move by ethnic enthusiasts from the majority Igala group in the state to seize the political trophy has run into a crisis following dissent over the genuineness of the champion of the struggle, Muritala Ajaka, the Social Democratic Party, SDP governorship candidate.

A former stalwart of the All Progressives Congress, APC who served as an aide to the former chairman of the national caretaker committee of the APC, Governor Mala Buni, Ajaka’s claim to be the champion of the Igala Agenda has been assailed by a fellow Igala, Admiral Jibrin Usman, the candidate of Accord in the election.

GWG.ng reports that Ajaka has been able to mobilise a section of the Igala ethnic base with his chorus of putting forward an Igala as the next governor of the state. His claim is upon the claim that the Igala who constitute more than 50% of the total population of the state should not play second fiddle to any other ethnic group.

However, that campaign that has been politically defined as the Igala Agenda is being disputed on two fronts.

Some like Usman believe that Ajaka is not fit to push the Igala Agenda having as it were not pandered towards the ethnic group while he held influence during Buni’s management of the national party.

Usman in a video that has been trending alleged that Ajaka did not help the Igala in the past claiming that the SDP candidate helped to squeeze him out of the governorship race in 2019.

Noting how he was disqualified in 2019, Usman said in an interview

“That boy (Muri Ajaka) that is shouting Igala Agenda is a liar. He doesn’t like Igala. The lies by his media people are too much and we are telling them to stop,” Adm Usman said in an interview that has been circulating.

Besides the opposition of elites like Usman to Ajaka, GWG.ng reports that entrenched political actors among the Igala are also helping to market the APC candidate, Usman Ododo to the discomfort of the canvassers of the Igala Agenda.

Among them are the minister of steel development, Shuaibu Audu Abubakar who is a scion of one of the most political families in Igala land and is ironically the chairman of the APC Campaign Council.

The deputy governor of the state, Edward Onoja despite his denial of the governorship ticket has been ploughing the grounds in Kogi East in support of Ododo.

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