KOGI:Bello Reverses State University After Audu

KOGI State Governor, Yahaya Bello, on Friday renamed the 15-year old Kogi State University, Ayangba , after the late first civilian governor of the state, Prince Abubakar Audu during a broadcast to mark his victory at the state governorship election petition tribunal.

In his speech, Governor Bello said that naming the university after the deceased prominent politician was aimed at immortalizing him having ruled the state meritoriously twice as the civilian governor from 1991 to 1993 and 1999 to 2003.

Speaking further on the justification for restoring the university to its original name which Audu’s successor renamed after the state, Bello said that Audu laid foundation for the growth and development of the state.

“Today, and as always, I celebrate the life and times of Prince AbubakarAudu, 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 Kogi State that he demonstrated through his lifetime,” he said.

It will be recalled that Audu himself established the university in 2001 and named it Prince AbubakarAudu University, but his successor, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, changed the name to Kogi State University in 2004.

Audu, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the November 21, 2015 governorship election in the state, died suddenly on November 22 before the result of the election was announced.

Following this ugly situation, the substituted Audu with Yahaya Bello as the candidate in the supplementary governorship election held on Dec. 5, 2015 which eventually led to political crisis both within his party, APC on one hand and the opposition PDP on the other.

Adopting spirit of sportsmanship after being announced the winner, Bello called on all those who lost at the tribunal, irrespective of their political affiliation, to join hands with him to develop the state declaring ‘no victor, no vanquish’.