The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday said the threat to violence by Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has the ability to cause a breach of public peace, truncate the 2023 electoral process and derail the nation’s democracy. PDP alleged that Bello in a video was quoted as saying that: “I will personally light a fierce fire in my hand, whoever wants it we shall use it to burn them, whoever sur-vives it will thank God… Whoever is against us, we will make him or her join my mother and lie with her (my mother) in the grave.”

The party in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, said the threat by Governor Bello raises apprehensions about the existence of a killer squad established to inflict violence on Nigerians ahead of the 2023 general election.

PDP recalled the alleged “gruesome killing of many of our citizens, including the PDP Woman Leader in Kogi State, Mrs. Salome Abu, who was burnt alive in her house in 2019. “Also, Nigerians now have more insight into the disappearance of Hon. Adelabu Musa, the PDP chairman in Okene Local Government Area for over three years now.” According to the party, the governor’s threat might have arisen from his perceived rejection of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) by Nigerians, due to poor performance. The PDP accused Bello’s government “of breeding and arming thugs as well as fake security operatives to harass and attack Nigerians in Kogi State during the 2019 general election.”