Ex-militant leader in the Niger Delta region and Mayor of Urhoboland, Eshanekpe Israel a.k.a Akpodoro, has lambasted the former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, over his comment on the 2027 general elections, saying the people of the South-South geo-political zone are wiser now and wouldn’t align with the North against the All Progressives Congress, APC-led administration of President Bola Tinubu.
The former warlord stated this Monday in Abuja when he played host to some leaders of thought from the Niger Delta belt in a reaction to a statement credited to the former governor who reportedly called on the North to align with the South-South geopolitical zone to take over power from the incumbent administration in 2027.
The Mayor, who said he was speaking the minds of the ex-militant leaders and the people of the entire South-South geopolitical zone, maintained that el-Rufai was overreaching himself by thinking that he had any followership in the North let alone the people of the South-South that would join him to unseat their own once again as they did in 2015 against the then President Goodluck Jonathan, insisting that such ‘foolishness’ on the part of the people of that zone will never repeat itself.
The ex-militant leader challenged el-Rufai to tell Nigerians what his legacies are in Kaduna State other than sorrows, pains and blood after eight years under him as governor, stressing that the people of Southern Kaduna are very grateful to Tinubu for exiting them from the scourge of blood-thirsty bandits.
“Northerners,” according to the Mayor, “are wiser now to recognise that el-Rufai and his ilks are not for the masses of the people but for themselves, their families and proxies.”
He accused the former governor of ruling his people with iron fist, a development, he noted, “almost cost the APC victory in the state.”
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