In an interview with ARISE Television on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, Ijele revealed this, accusing the Kogi State Government of political intimidation and terror after it abruptly banned public meetings prior to Natasha’s homecoming rally.
Ijele insisted that Natasha’s increasing power was the true cause of the restrictions and dismissed the government’s security worries as a simple cover-up.
By pointing out that no curfew or rally ban was enforced in 2024 despite the massacre of over 32 people in the Omala Local administration Area, the SDP leader further charged the state administration with applying a double standard when it came to security matters.
“They’re jittering,” he remarked. They fear Senator Natasha’s personality, atmosphere, and everything she possesses. It’s a young woman. I can tell you that, out of everyone on the Senate floor, Senator Natasha is the one who has won elections, is clear and unclouded, and is free of all the shenanigans they played against us in 2023. She has the grassroots. She has the people. And for that reason, they are terrified.
32 persons were massacred in my local government last year in 2024. That massacre claimed the lives of my aunt and uncle. There was no curfew. No political rally was prohibited. Nothing like it existed. In reality, the administration denied as though nothing were taking place.
Rallies for political causes were not prohibited. After Natasha printed the poster, it was making the rounds on social media, and then all of a sudden, she came home. In an open ballot, I challenge Ododo and Bello combined—ten of them, not just one. They will lose to Natasha before four o’clock. No one will vote for them in four hours.
Ijele also brought attention to the destruction in his hometown of Bagana, where he said that bandits had destroyed all of the buildings and forced the locals to relocate for more than two years without any significant help from the government.
He claimed that the state administration was forcing itself on the populace while ignoring the lack of security in places like Ejule and Aloma, which he characterized as hubs for banditry and kidnapping.
“The people have spent the last two years in IDP camps,” he continued. The government of Kogi State has never proclaimed a state of emergency in that local government; nevertheless, they did so in Ihima, where no fatalities have ever occurred.