Dec. 30, 2022

The Kogi State Government has described Thursday’s bomb explosion in Okene as the handiwork of enemies of progress.

Retired Commodore Jerry Omodara, Security Adviser to Kogi Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, made the statement in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lokoja on Thursday.

The explosion, which occurred around 9.00 a.m. close to the old palace of the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland, left four persons dead and two others injured.

Omodara said that the government earlier had intelligence that something like that would happen, which “explains why we had enough deployment of security personnel across the state to be able to frustrate their efforts”.

“Unfortunately, in spite of that they, the enemies of progress, still tried to distract President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to Kogi by setting that explosion.

“All the same, the deployment and tight security around didn’t allow them to achieve their aim.

“This Government can authoritatively say that the cause of the blast was solely the act of misguided politicians and people who don’t want anything good for their state.

“We are aware of some disgruntled politicians celebrating the sad incident that happened today in Okene, where some innocent people lost their lives.

“As a government we believe that issues of security must concern everyone, and until we all put our hands on deck, it will affect us in one way or the other.

“The people who died today are some persons’ children, brothers or relations, so it must concern all of us.

“But for some politicians to celebrate the blast, is very unfortunate and not the kind of politics that can move us forward in this state and the nation as a whole,” he said.

The SA expressed gladness that the effort of the planners was frustrated and “the visit of our president, Muhammadu Buhari, was very successful as he commissioned several milestone legacy projects of Gov Bello that had direct bearing on the lives of the people of the state.”

According to him, the enemies of the state will continue to fail in their antics to “ensure that this government doesn’t succeed in moving Kogi forward”.

“Let it be a sound of warning to the disgruntled politicians that Kogi will continue to be on top in area of security in this country as far as Bello’s administration is concerned.

“His (Bello) interest is to have peace in Kogi and nothing can distract him from that. We are suspecting the man that perished in the car as the one who brought the bomb or explosive to disrupt the programme for today.

“Already samples have been taken both human and vehicle parts, and the police and other security agencies investigating the incident will determine what exactly happened.

“The police and other security agencies will definitely come up with their reports for the public to know.

“We are not resting on our oars until the culprits are caught and brought to book.

“As a government we sympathise and condole those families that lost their loved ones to the explosion of today, Thursday,” he said. (NAN)