Kogi Govt Names State University after Prince Abubakar Audu

By Yekini Jimoh in Lokoja

The Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, has named the state university after the first Executive Governor of Kogi State, late Prince Abubakar Audu, who was the gubernatorial candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last year governorship election in the state.

The governor who disclosed this during a state broadcast over the weekend on his judicial victories at the Kogi State Elections Petitions Tribunal said: “In this matter, I declare that there is neither victor, nor vanquished.

“Today, and as always, I celebrate the life and times of Prince Abubakar Audu, the first Executive Governor of Kogi State. It is our hope that those who want to lay claim to his legacy will at least develop the same heart for the growth and development of the state that he demonstrated throughout his lifetime.

“We will continue to honor him and recognise his contributions. It is against this backdrop that I immortalise our fallen hero by naming Kogi State University after him as Prince Abubakar Audu University. I will send an executive bill to the state House of Assembly for confirmation,” he promised.

He noted that a total of five elections petitions were filed against him by various actors who also contested as candidates or not, but failed in those elections.

The governor stressed that the petition by Hon. James Faleke was a bit harder to come to terms with because it came from within the ranks of their party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“It is never an easy task when a leader finds himself in conflict with elements of his own support group and I found it particularly hard to face off with fellow party men in the press and in court.

“Faleke’s Petition greatly polarized our party at a time when we really needed to act as one in order to survive the heavy blow dealt the APC in the state by the