“The question for 2027 is not who wins Kogi governorship — APC will, with 446k votes pattern. The question is: will there still be a Kogi to win? Kogi borders 10 states. Soon, Kogi may border itself”.
BY ABDULBAKI IBRAHIM
After a decade of dominance, will the Okene Dynasty accept rotation or will it force Okun and Igala to seek escape via new states?
THE UPPER HAND:
As of October 2026, APC has total upper hand in Kogi.
Facts Check: On October 18, 2026, KOSIEC Chairman Mamman Eri declared APC won all 21 chairmanship and all 239 councillorship seats in 3,508 polling units.
All 25 House of Assembly seats are APC.
Yahaya Bello boasted last year: “You don’t need to come to Kogi to campaign in 2027. There is no opposition.”
Defections confirmed it:
Last week in Ofu Local Government Area (LGA) (Onicha-Igo), over 100 members of ADC, NDC, PDP and SDP defected to APC pledging for Tinubu and Ododo.
In Ijumu-Ogidi, 500 SDP, NDC, PDP members plus ADC Women Leader Mrs. Ebunlola Abolarin defected.
In Kabba-Bunu, hundreds left PDP citing Ododo’s leadership style.
PDP that ruled Kogi from 2003-2016 scored only 46,362 votes in 2023 governorship — against Ododo’s 446,237 and SDP’s 259,324.
Former Governor Idris Wada, Speaker Alfa Umar Imam, and SDP deputy candidate Sam Abenemi defected in May 2026 at Muhammadu Buhari Square. Upper hand is real. But it is fragile.
The Minority Question – The Godfather Facttor:
For 10 uninterrupted years, governorship has been in one LGA — Okene. Bello 2016-2024, Ododo 2024 till date, both from Okene.
Same pattern for Chief of Staff, Attorney General, Head of Service.
That is not zoning, it is dynasty.
Ododo knows it. He received the Kogi Unity Accord Committee report after consultations in 21 LGAs proposing power rotation.
He is “trying a different tactic” from Bello’s willpower approach.
He praises Bello’s unity legacy in public, but in private, he allows dialogue on power shift — an avenue Shaikh Sani Musa called “foresight to preserve unity above sectional interests.”
Suspense: Will the Okene dynasty accept rotation or will it force Okun and Igala to seek escape via new states?
The Three Identities – Where Defections Meet Secession:
Okura Identity (Kogi East): Nine Local Government Areas, 51% voters. Uk’omu Igala under General Akpa demands Okura State since 1981, rejected regionalism in 2014.
They watch defections in Ofu with suspicion — APC says “we have no business in opposition,” but Igala elders whisper “we have no business in Okene monopoly.”
Okun Identity (Kogi West): Five Local Government Areas, Yoruba-speaking. 34 years, no governor.
Okun Development Association sent memo to House Committee for Okun State. Yet in Ijumu, defections to APC are happening because the Local Government chairman Ibrahim Haruna controls empowerment.
Upper hand is bought with projects, not identity.
Remedies:
A Kabba youth leader who defected told me: “I joined APC for borehole, but my heart remains Okun State”.
Central Identity (Ebira): The fortress, but cracking.
Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan is keeping PDP alive in Central.
On June 15, 2026 in Adavi West, APC ward executives and Youth Leader defected to PDP pledging for her second term. She told them: “PDP remains committed to fairness, justice and people-centred leadership.”
That is the only LGA where APC is bleeding to PDP, not the reverse.
The Security Fear – As Consequence:
Governor Ododo links insecurity to spillover from North-East/North-West Kogi, which borders with 10 states including FCT, will definitely experience insecurity. Ododo is fighting it with sustained operations in Kabba-Bunu.
But here is the electrifying twist: If Okun, Okura and Confluence States are created — all three are right now on the House list with 56 requests including Okun, Okura and Confluence in Kogi — then his centralized security architecture shatters.
Today he commands one Commissioner of Police for Lokoja-Kabba-Ankpa road. Tomorrow he negotiates with what villagers already mockingly call Okura Police, Okun Police and Confluence Police.
This is exactly as Niger State analysis: Bago wants security but fears Bida Police, Kontagora Police, Suleja Police. Ododo wants security but fears the split that defections cannot stop.
Conclusion: Kogi APC has upper hand in numbers — 21 LGAs, 239 wards, 100+ defections weekly, but upper hand in numbers is not upper hand in hearts.
Ododo’s real battle is not PDP’s 46,362 votes. It is whether he can keep the confluence together when Okun wants to rejoin Yoruba Southwest, Igala wants Okura, and Lokoja itself is eyed for Confluence State.
Bello built an Okene dynasty. Ododo is trying to sustain it with defections and youth inclusion.
Natasha is poking holes from Adavi and Abuja is holding a memo that could create three new states from Kogi.
The question for 2027 is not who wins Kogi governorship — APC will, with 446k votes pattern. The question is: will there still be a Kogi to win? Kogi borders 10 states. Soon, Kogi may border itself.
…Alhaji Abdulbaki Ibrahim, political affairs analyst is based in Kano.
