An aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the November 16 governorship election in Kogi state has expressed confidence that he will win the party’s ticket. Mohammed also described as a poorly-executed hatchet job, the statement by the Kogi state APC, which called for the disqualification of leading contenders in the race for the party’s ticket, so as to clear the way for Governor Yahaya Bello’s victory at the party’s primary. In a statement sent to journalists by his spokesman, Moses Abdullahi, on Thursday, June 20, Mohammed condemned the attempt by the party to give Governor Bello an undue advantage, describing the Kogi state chapter of the party as “recklessly unjust, undisguisedly biased and devoid of any shred of impartiality.”
“It is common knowledge that the Kogi state chapter of the APC is an appendage of Governor Yahaya Bello’s office with its undisguised support as it pertains the upcoming governorship primary election in our dear state. But the party stretched its luck too far on Wednesday when it called for our disqualification,” the statement said.
The statement said it was scandalous that the party is not hiding its plan to shut credible contenders out of the race even, stressing that a Yahaya Bello’s second coming portends disaster for Kogi state. “It is a well-known fact that a Yahaya Bello’s second term would mean hunger, poverty, disease, continuing political weakness, falling standard of education and dwindling prospect of progress in all the critical sectors of Kogi state’s economy,” the statement added. He said they (aspirants) were disposed to direct primary as a way of selecting the party’s flag bearer because it is more democratic but said that with or without the direct primary, “we will defeat Yahaya Bello fair and square.” Mohammed added that instead of owning up on its ineptitude and insensitivity to the plight of Kogi people,
“Governor Yahaya Bello and his puppets at the Kogi APC have chosen the path of unprovoked, malicious attempt to scheme credible contenders out of the race.” He stressed that the choice of such path by the state chapter of the party is further proof that the lives of my people do not matter to it. “The life of a single person who has died from hunger as a result of non payment of salary should matter and its loss is regrettable and calls for serious concern. It is more painful when such life is lost in a preventable circumstance,” the statement said.
He warned that all other aspirants and their supporters will resist the planned rigging of August APC governorship primary in Kogi state come August. Meanwhile, a volunteer group of youths from Kogi state, Kogi Youth Movement (KYM), on Wednesday, June 19, rejected the second term ambition of Governor Bello, and insisted on direct primary to pick the candidate of the APC. The youths who protested against Bello’s second term ambition at the Unity Fountain arena in Abuja with placards of different inscriptions, said the KYM was adding their voice to the millions of others voices in the state that have rejected the governor’s ambition. Secretary of the group, Mr Ayuba Abdullahi, told journalists during the protest that their aim was to ensure good governance and to foster youth development in all its ramifications.