Last Updated on 17 April 2023 by Oladipo Abiola
In April 2020, the senator representing Kogi West in the National Assembly, Smart Adeyemi, had promised to support any governorship candidate endorsed by Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State.
OsunDaily News reports that the lawmaker stated this while addressing a crowd at the flag-off of food distribution to his constituents during the height of COVID-19 in 2020.
Adeyemi said he would support whoever the governor anoints as his successor, even if the person is his worst political enemy.
The senator promised to support the governor’s decision “whether good or bad”, and vowed not to have any issues with the Bello regarding the issue.
He said: “Only a foolish man will ever think I will have issues with Yahaya Bello. I will not have any issues with him, it will not happen. Because when people did not believe in me, he did. So, why would I fight him? I can defend him to any level. I will not betray him. Whatever the decision of Yahaya Bello — whether good or bad — I will stand by it.
“I heard some people have been talking. Whenever the governor is leaving office, if he likes, let him bring my worst political enemies as successor, I will support him. I am not in a hurry for any positions.
“Whomever Bello brings, we’ll support him. I am a progressive-minded person, I am a man of faith. I am here by the grace of God using Yahaya Bello and you people.
“There is no interest to defend in Kogi because Governor Bello is a just and fair person. So there is nothing to fight with him. He is our neighbour and in-law, and God mandates us to love our neighbours as yourself.”
However, three years later, Adeyemi leads the protest against the controversial election of Bello’s anointed successor, Ahmed Ododo, on Saturday, April 15, 2023.
This comes after Adeyemi and some other contestants rejected the declaration of Ododo as the winner of the All Progressives Congress primary election for the Kogi governorship election.
In a interview with Arise TV on Monday, Adeyemi said the primary election is the worst form of rigging and unprecedented in the history of Nigeria.
The senator also described the primary as a ridicule of the Nigerian constitution and promised to pursue the case to the supreme court.
He said: “Announcements were made and I was taken aback. This is the worst malpractice; the worst form of rigging and unprecedented in the history of Nigeria.
“If there was an election and it was rigged, we will know it was rigged, but where there was no election at all, and for someone to have the audacity to write the result and went ahead to announce it.
“The primary election in Kogi was just allocation of votes.”
