The senator representing Kogi East in the National Assembly, Isah Jibrin Echocho popularly known as “Kneeling Down Senator” has confirmed how thugs attacked him inside the Government House, Lokoja, Kogi State.
The lawmaker, in a telephone interview with Daily Trust, said the incident happened on Tuesday immediately after a meeting with Governor Yahaya Bello outside the Governor’s office.
Echocho said himself, Senator Sunday Karimi (Kogi West) and other All Progressives Congress (APC) federal lawmakers from the state had gone to pay homage to the Governor after the yeltitude season.
He said the thugs singled him out of other legislators and pounced on him, accusing him of being responsible for APC’s poor performance in the last governorship election in Kogi East senatorial district.
It was an election APC performed woefully as Governor Yahaya Bello has to rig From Kogi Central with 446, 237 votes, to be ahead of the main winner Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), who won the majority votes of with 259,052.
Both Ajaka and Echocho are from Kogi East Senatorial District.
Echocho said the attackers berated him for not working for the success of APC in Kogi East during the poll.
The lawmaker, however, said he did not suffer any injury as the police officers present provided him security and he had since returned to Abuja safely.
Narrating how the incident happened, the senator said, “I was attacked by thugs in Government House Lokoja but the police rescued me.
“What happened was that all APC senators and the House of Representatives members from the state visited the governor on a courtesy call for the New Year.
“Being one of them, I was not left out.
We went up and we had some brief meeting with the Governor, though he expressed dissatisfaction over APC performance in Kogi East (my senatorial district) in the last governorship election.
“I told the Governor that I tried all I could to convince my people to vote for the APC.
I campaigned vigorously for APC in Kogi East but the people were resolute in voting for another candidate despite my efforts.
“It is not as if APC performed woefully in the election in Kogi East.
There were pockets of LGs and wards that we won.
There was no other thing I could have done beyond what I did.
We exchanged pleasantries with the Governor, took a group photograph and left.
“As we were coming out, in front of the Governor’s office, the thugs pounced on me, that I was responsible for APC’s failure in Kogi East.
“To my surprise, they brought out knives and other dangerous weapons to attack me but police officers around were able to rescue me inside my vehicle and we zoomed off.
I thank God I didn’t suffer any injury.
The police were able to provide sufficient security.”
Recall, Isah Echocho is the popular Senator whose video went viral before Kogi State election for kneeling down for Governor Yahaya Bello on the account that he was according to HIM over rewarding the people of Kogi East with appointments.
An act that was condemned by many Nigerians particularly the people of Kogi East as they argued that Governor Yahaya Bello was not even instrumental to Minister Shaibu Audu’s appointment clarifying that it was the cordial relationship between late prince Audu and President Tinubu that earned Shaibu that appointment.
