A youth group under the aegis of Kajuru Local Government Youths For Peace and Development, has kicked against the re-election bid of Yakubu Barde, the law maker representing Chikun/Kajuru Federal Constituency, Kaduna state.
In a communique issued at the end of their meeting on Friday in Kaduna, the group declared that Barde, who is seeking re-election for the sixth term in the National Assembly, has misrepresented the people of the area for too long and should be rejected in 2023.
The communique signed by the secretary of the group, Nathan Dikko, said, “Hon. Yakubu Umar Barde has overstayed his time, he is a failed project that has spanned across 20 years of mispresentation and the entire people of Kajuru have rejected his bid to return for the sixth term. We unequivocally endorse the powershift to Kajuru.”
The communique called on the people of the constituency to unite and bring about the change that will ensure job creation and empowerment for the people of the area.
“It is in this light also that we solicit the support of all well meaning citizens and eligible voters within the Chikun/ Kajuru constituency to align with this movement for the long overdue change so as to attract job provison, meaningful empowerment in the midst of hunger and poverty presently being experienced in the country and the general development of the constituency as witnessed in other federal constituencies.
They also condemned the purported endorsement of Barde by Governor Nasir El-Rufai.
El-Rufai was said to have allegedly endorsed Barde during the coronation of the Etsu Chikun, the traditional ruler of the Gbagyi nation.
The governor is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) while Barde is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and has spent 20 years in the National Assembly.
The communique lamented the security situation in Kajuru, noting that it is one of the areas worst hit by the activities of bandits terrorising Kaduna state.
They maintained that El-Rufai, seemed to be out of tune with the reality of things as it concerns insecurity in Kajuru LGA.
“It is without doubt that the governor seemed to be out of tune with the current realities in the constituency as evident in the security challenges bedeviling the constituency, especially, Kajuru, where people are taken almost daily in their scores.
“Currently, the (State House of Assembly) candidate of the APC and the Chairman of the party in Kajuru Local Government”, have been in the hands of kidnappers for over two weeks, with a demand for N50 million ransom by their abductors”.
