As Kogi electorates prepare for the November 11 governorship election, Governor Yahaya Bello has cautioned politicians against promoting ethnic sentiments and other divisive tendencies.

Information commissioner Kingsley Fanwo, in a statement on Sunday, urged residents not to succumb to the “antics of mischief-makers and ethnic bigots.”

The statement said, “Such bigots are out to stoke the flames of ethnic resentment, division and hate. They are agents of political desperadoes. The Kogi government is so concerned over the activities of those desperate individuals bent on destroying the unity and peace being enjoyed by the state.”

The Kogi government added that their “unintelligent approach has been to push ethnically divisive words and attribute the same to Governor Yahaya Bello” to incite certain ethnic groups against him and his administration.

“By God’s grace, we, the people of Kogi, will not fall to their antics. Clearly, those inciting statements are false and are dragging our state back to the conquered era of ethnic chauvinism. What binds us together is stronger than the desperate wishes of the enemies of the state,” stated the Kogi government.

The statement explained that Mr Bello’s policies, programmes, projects, appointments and “unifying leadership credentials ” had built the state into what politics should not balkanise.

According to it, Kogi remains a united and prosperous and united state.

The Kogi government urged the public to ignore “inciting falsehoods” and report “those who circulate them” to law enforcement agencies.

“People responsible for such incitements do not have the interest of the state at heart,” it noted.

(NAN)