Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi on Monday in Abuja updated President Muhammadu Buhari on the flood disaster that submerged more than 200 communities in 10 local government areas of the state.
Bello, who spoke to State House correspondents after the closed-door meeting, said he briefed the president on the situation and the happenings in the state.
He commended the Federal Government for its interventions, but expressed regret that the magnitude of the disaster was such that required government to supply more relief materials for the victims.
“As usual I came to brief Mr. President on situation report and the happenings in my state periodically. I am sure you are all aware of the flood problem that is happening all over the country and Kogi is worst hit being the confluence state, confluence of the two rivers.
“So, we are worst hit and I needed to come and present the report to him myself. Even though I sincerely appreciate Mr President for deploying relevant agencies like NEMA (National Emergency Management Agency) and all the security agencies to come to our aid.
“As I speak to you, NEMA is on their way to Lokoja to access the level of damage and we received substantial amount of relief materials so far, it is not enough. I need to present the report to him as well and also to tell him about the security of the state and how we are doing.
“We are doing very well and I thank all the security agencies who have been assisting us to make sure we curb insecurity in the state. Do these are the issues that brought me to come and explain to Mr President.’’
On the 2019 elections and the chances of President Buhari and the APC, the governor expressed the hope that the party would record overwhelming victory in the elections.
Bello vowed to deliver twice the number of votes scored by President Buhari during the presidential election in the state in 2015.
He said: “This is the era when people build their castles in the air because there is a lot of hope ,even when it is false.
“You can see that Mr. President is good to go. I want to assure Nigerians that the vote for Mr President in 2019 is going to double that of 2015.
“In my own state, I can assure you, take my words, we are going to have all the twenty five House of Assembly members, all the nine House of Representatives members and all the three Senators for APC in this 2019 election.
“We did it in all other states and in my state you can see in the last by-election the gap when the election was conducted in 2015 between the APC winner and the PDP was just about 7,000, but in this last by-election, we doubled the gap, so that is an indication.
“Two, by my style of leadership in Kogi State, we met Kogi State House of Assembly, APC in minority, we have overwhelming majority today, we have less than 85,000 registered in Kogi State for APC, as at today we have over a million membership in the state.
“Yesterday (Sunday) we had a decamping rally where SDP state chapter collapsed, ADP, ADC, PDP majority of them including Kwamkwasiya, they burnt their cap yesterday, they drove away the SDP horse yesterday.
“So that is the movement and it is across the nation not only in Kogi state.’
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