•Three killed as ‘Operation Point and Kill’ takes off

By: Oliseama Okwuchukwu

The Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council (PDP-PCCO) on Sunday raised the alarm over the alleged secret execution of political opponents in Kogi State.

The organisation said no fewer than three members of the Social Democratic Party (SDP),  have been summarily  executed by the All Progressives Congress Government of Yahaya Bello through the slogan of “point and kill” in the past few days.

The Spokesperson of PDP-PCCO in Kogi State and civil rights activist, Austin Okai Usman, in a statement in Lokoja entitled, “Kogi State Is Under Siege”, said the operation in which three persons were gunned down “lasted for at least 2 hours 3 minutes starting from 1:30am on January 11, 2019.”

The statement reads in part: “The PDP-PCCO in Kogi State is constrained by recent happenings in the State to draw the attention of the global community to an emerging reality that clearly suggests the state is under a siege.

“Nigerians may recall that January 6, 2019, this council uncovered a plot by the outgoing accidental Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Adoza Bello, and his agents to roll out an elaborate agenda to roll out calculated violence in the state targeted at members of the opposition.

“Not only was this revelation made to the world and selected foreign missions, the council noted that the project will be bankrolled by the state government.

“Whereas agents of the screamed blue murder and employed all the outdated tricks to cover up their plot to endanger Nigeria’s democracy, the events of the last 3 days has clearly validated our intelligence report.

“The PDP Presidential Campaign Council would ordinarily not dignify the activities of an urchin who wields executive powers but the facts surrounding this latest macabre dance of shame of the APC and outgoing Governor Yahaya Bello strongly suggest that only a high powered collaboration could have made it possible.

“It is for this reason that the attention of the highest echelon of the Nigeria Armed Forces, the Department of State Services and the Nigeria Police Force is drawn to the fact that on the last count, paid agents of the Kogi State Governor, provided with full security and supervised by a member of the cabinet of the outgoing governor, Yahaya Bello have summarily executed three (3) members of the opposition especially the Social Democratic Party (SDP) by gunshot.

“We note that this operation lasted for at least 2 hours 3 minutes starting from 1:30am on January 11 2019.

“While this ‘point and kill’ operation went on, every access members of the opposition had to security agents were either interrupted or cut off. Members of the opposition who could phone local police formations were ignored as the phone calls rang out.

“We also wish to draw the attention of the Embassy of the U.S. and Germany as well as the High Commissions of the U.K. and Canada that perhaps the prediction of the disintegration of Nigeria by 2015 is still valid as all indices point to a fact that the date merely changed and that Kogi State, being a former capital of Nigeria with access to waterfront resources has been designated as the point from where the first shots signifying commencement of the 2nd Nigerian civil war will be fired.

“The PDP Presidential Campaign Council also notes that currently, at least 2 families in the over 210 electoral wards in Kogi State have at least 3 victims of political violence which comes in form of festering wounds, permanent disability or even death as the case is with the Ojo Enesi family in Okene, Kogi Central.

“This is in our own opinion one of the most important ingredients required to create a replica of the Rwandan genocide and possibly the unrests in Burundi and Yemen.

“There is no gain in repeating that there is a well-funded covert mass murder operation going on in Kogi State.

“In the last two years, the state government has openly invested state funds in the acquisition of military hardware – booths, camouflage, rifles, grenades, machetes and bullets some of which were seen on live television.

“Perhaps those were preparatory efforts made to ensure smooth take off of the killings which have happened today.

“Kogi State is broken and bruised. Kogi people are bitter and angry but the indomitable spirit of the Kogi man will not sink or despair.

“While we know as a matter of fact that those whose hands are smeared with blood must face justice today or tomorrow, we are concerned about who may be next.”