HOW WE HELPED APC TO WIN ELECTIONS IN KOGI STATE - MURDERERS

Some of the politicians Ijogbon had allegedly worked for include Governor Yahaya Bello; Ibrahim Idris, ex-Governor of Kogi State; Ahmed Ogembe, a former senator from Kogi State, Mohammed (Ogembele) former Okene Local Government Area chairma

Abdulkareem Abubakar, a suspected murderer and big-time thug widely known as Ijogbon (trouble) was part of those engaged to facilitate the victory of Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari at the 2015 and 2019 presidential elections in the country.

Ijogbon, 39, who described himself as a “political thug”, was part of the youths paid by Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State to do the dirty works of politics and help silence the opposition in the state.

He is alleged to be a notorious hired killer and armed robber and works for political parties that need his services.

He is said to have allies within the Nigeria Police Force providing him with intelligence. This has made it almost impossible for Abubakar to arrested and prosecuted.

It was not surprising when SaharaReporters made repeated efforts using two different correspondents to speak with the Kogi State Police Command were rebuffed.

Repeated calls and SMS to its spokesman, William Anya, were ignored, refusing to react on whetherIjogbonwas prosecuted by the police after he was paraded in 2014.

Ijogbon and his mate, including his ‘opponents’ work for politicians in Kogi, especially those belonging to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Some of the politicians Ijogbon had allegedly worked for include Governor Yahaya Bello; Ibrahim Idris, ex-Governor of Kogi State; Ahmed Ogembe, a former senator from Kogi State, Mohammed (Ogembele) former Okene Local Government Area chairman and other political bigwigs in the state before he was recruited to work for President Buhari.

In 2013, Ijogbon quit armed robbery but politicians in Kogi were not happy as he knows about many of the atrocities committed by them in the state. This made them send one of his subordinates, Mohammed Farouq, to kill him.

It turned out that Ijogbon subdued Farouq, killed him, chopped off his head and buried the body and the head separately in different locations.

He was arrested afterwards but Ijogbon mysteriously found his way, through the help of politicians in Kogi out of the police net into the ‘immaculate’ President Buhari and Governor Yahaya Bello campaign team in Kogi State.

Ijogbon ‘The Murderer’ Captured By Police In 2014

In 2014, the Kogi State Police Command arrested Ijogbon after he killed Farouq and fled to Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

When the police arrested him, Ijogbon opened up on how he had worked for politicians in the state and how politicians were angered by his decision to stop assassinating people on their behalf.

“What happened is that I am a political thug – Ahmed Ogembe brought me into this ‘game’.

“I work for them in PDP but when I decided to quit, I did amnesty, former acting commissioner of police called me that I should (accept) amnesty. The gun that we used for fighting, that I should call my people and my opponents to do the amnesty, if not he would declare me wanted, of which I did (accepted the offer of amnesty). So, we did amnesty, the first phase, and the second phase, then we quit the system and we are not doing it again,” he explained.

But that did not bring him peace.

“I became an enemy to them (politicians). So, they sent Farouq Lawan to kill me. He came to my house and I escaped. He killed my brother.

“He traced me to my sister’s place; I escaped and he killed my sister and the case is with the police,” he narrated.

Ijogbon continued: “Mohammed Ogembele, the Okene local government chairman, who I worked for before I sustained this injury – he wanted those boys to kill me because I was not from their clan. They took my pregnant wife to soldiers’ barracks. She spent four days with them. I was so scared and could not stay at my house again.”

Afterward, he sought vengeance on Farouq.

“I killed him (Farouq) to free myself. I cannot report because the security (agency) was (all) over the place looking for me. I had to live in the bush.

“I shot him in Lafia. He did not die. I took him with my friend, Moses, and Sodiq. Sodiq cut the head because he did not die. I did it for vengeance,” he admitted.

Seidu Madawaki, the then-Kogi State Commissioner of Police, had said Ijogbon was one of the prime suspects in the state and would be charged to court as three of his gang members had been arrested and were facing prosecution.

Madawaki had said, “His (Farouq) corpse was dumped in a cassava farm without (the) head. We arrested six suspects and that led to the recovery of the corpse. He escaped to Port Harcourt but was arrested and (we) transferred him to Lokoja. 

“He was arrested and investigated. His colleagues have been remanded in prison custody. We have four people, already – three have been charged to court. So, this is one of the principal suspects who took away the head after killing their victim. He led us to where he buried the head.”

2019 Elections

In 2019 electioneering, Ijogbon was vividly seen vigorously moving with the campaign team of President Buhari and Governor Bello.

He was at several political rallies and campaign grounds of the APC.

In one of the pictures obtained by SaharaReporters, Ijogbon was seen posing with Prince Abdulkareem Onyekehi, Special Adviser on Job Creation and Small and Medium Development Enterprise to the Kogi governor.

Also, in the picture are four fierce-looking, ready-to-kill men in their 30s.

The relationship between Onyekehi, Ijogbon and the other people in the picture could not be ascertained but the picture also confirmed Ijogbon as an integral member of Governor Bello’s campaign team. 

It could be gathered that the governor is leaving no stone unturned to ensure he returns to the seat of power as he continues to lose popularity among the people of Kogi and a disgruntled faction of the APC.