Quadri Yahya
Claim
Social media users claimed the Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello has excavated a road leading to the district of a candidate of Peoples Democratic Party in Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
Verdict
True. But no evidence the excavation is to prevent INEC officials from getting to the PDP senatorial candidate district.
Full Text
Less than 24 hours to the presidential and parliamentary polls, questionable information has been making the rounds on social media.
On February 24th, a Twitter user, Adeola Fayehun(@AdeolaFayehun) posted some pictures with a caption alleging that Yahaya Bello is destroying five roads leading to Natasha Akpoti’s hometown.
In a Facebook live video on Thursday, some residents could be seen around gullies in Ihima, Okehi LGA of Kogi state, while others were trying to fill some holes.
The post claims the excavation was to prevent officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission front getting to the PDP senatorial candidate district.
Yahaya Bello allegedly destroys five roads leading to Natasha Akpoti’s hometown to prevent @inecnigeria officials from getting there. They’re completely cut off from the rest of Kogi. This is madness!!!😳 #Nigeriadecide2023 #kogi #yahayabello #natashaakpoti pic.twitter.com/vSG1uQu2zp
— Adeola Fayehun (@AdeolaFayehun) February 24, 2023
The post has garnered over 9k retweets, 2k quote tweets and 16.7k likes.
Verification
FactCheckElections verify this claim because of its proximity to the election day. A quick search online shows news reports by TheCable and Channels TV. The Kogi government’s reaction to the allegation is that the road excavation was a deliberate security measure, saying the move was spurred by the December explosion in the community as well as recent attacks by gunmen.
“It would be recalled that a couple of days ago, the secretariat complex of Okehi Local Government suffered from the effect of an explosive device. The security agencies ensured no life was lost as a result of the explosion, but the state government convened an emergency security council meeting to address the security challenges in the area with a view to devising strategies of averting possible future occurrence, especially as we witnessed similar explosion on December 29, 2022 at Okene,” Fanwo said.
“One of the measures arrived at was to restrict the number of routes to the flashpoints to enable security agents to properly mount effective surveillance on the other access roads for the safety of the people, especially as they go to the polls on Saturday, February 25, 2023.”
We however observed that the viral information alleged that the excavation was to prevent officials of INEC from going to the district of the PDP senatorial candidate.
FactCheckElections can confirm that there is no evidence to support the allegation that the Kogi government has denied the claim.
Conclusion
The claim that the Kogi State Government is excavating roads in some LGAs is TRUE. However, there is no evidence the excavation is to prevent INEC officials from getting to the PDP senatorial candidate district.