Kogi State governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello yesterday narrated how his late mother Hajia Hauwa Bello was kept for 93 days in the hands of kidnappers in 2012.

The governor told a contingent of journalists who paid him a condolence visit over the death of his mother that his mother’s experience in the hands of kidnappers led to her instructions that no one should go through a similar experience and asked him to go all out and smoke out kidnappers from the state.

Hajia Hauwa Bello passed on last Sunday at the age of 101.

“She taught and asked me to continue to secure the lives and properties of the good people of kogi state and she asked me to ensure that what she suffered in the hands of the kidnappers in 2012 where she was kept inside cave for 93 days. She said no one should ever suffer what she suffered.” Bello said.

According to him:

“Asides from what is enshrined in the constitution or laws about protection of lives and properties, provide welfare for the people, I’m always and will always carry the burden, encouraged by the words of my mother to ensure that Kogi state is safe and secured and I will continue to do that Bello also extolled the viruses of her late mother describing her as a virtuous woman born in an extraordinary way and whose life was exemplary to everyone that came across her.

“She lived greatly, very humble but very greatly. Her main concern is safety in our community and whenever there was a dispute on any issue that required mediation however tough or hard it might be when my mother is called upon and she goes in there, there is a solution. Everybody regarded and referred to her as a solution provider.

“According to him, he brought us up in a very virtuous way, she taught us how to be contented with the little or the much we have, she taught us how to be patient, she taught us how to be prayerful, she taught us how to respect elders, because she has self gave birth to me in a miraculous way because the gap between myself and my next sister is over 10 years !nobody would ever imagine that she would have me any longer and I and then I grew up under her, so she taught me how to respect others, she taught me to be focused, she taught me to be brave to confront the challenges of this world, she taught me how to be successful in whatever I am doing and she admonished me and encourage me to live in the fear of the almighty God and to touch all lives,” he noted.

While expressing deep appreciation for the visit, Governor Bello called on working journalists in the state to always tell it as it is and shout be free to draw the attention of the government to any issue concerning the state.

“You have to tell us if we are doing good so that we can do more and if we are doing anything to the contrary, please equally tell us so that we take corrections. I always say that whatever you see me exhibiting that is good, it is exactly what my mother taught me to do. If anything to the contrary, I must have learnt it from society.”

He promised to continue to discharge his duties to the best of his ability to cooperate with law enforcement agencies, the journalists and all our prayerful and wonderful people of Kogi state.