20 APC gov’ship aspirants oppose indirect primary in Kogi

Tunde Opalana, Abuja

Ahead of the November 16, 2019 governorship election in Kogi State, 20 aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) eyeing Governor Yahaya Bello’s seat have risen against indirect primary in picking the party’s flag bearer.

Expressing possible fear of losing Kogi State to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the aspirants appealed to party leaders at the national level to allow sanity prevail in the August APC primary election.

Coming under the umbrella of APC Kogi Stakeholders Forum, the aspirants were concerned that there already exist a sharp division in the state chapter of APC.

The forum said it had petitioned the National Working Committee of the party over the factionalisation of the party in the state, which led to the setting up the of the Tony Momoh committee.

Speaking on behalf of other aspirants at a press briefing in Abuja on Monday, Senator Alex Kadri, asked the national leadership of the party to set up an independent caretaker committee to run the activities of the party in Kogi state until after the election.

He stated: “As we are preparing for the gubernatorial primaries, we want it known that we, the leaders of the APC in the state, as well as the 20 aspirants of our party are opposed to the Yahaya Bello contrived method of doing primaries, because we are told that he gathered his appointees at Lokoja over the weekend and they endorsed indirect primaries.

“We will not accept indirect primaries for the selection of a gubernatorial candidate for our party. We will not allow Yahaya to gather his political appointees in a room for them to say they are adopting indirect primaries.

That means they are the same people who will go to the direct primaries to vote. The insult on Kogi people is too much, we want to stop it.

“He cannot be a judge of himself, this is irresponsible. We are saying that the primaries for Kogi state must be direct primaries, where all the members of the party from all the local government will choose who they want to be their candidate.

We don’t want it to be thrown to the executive in a way that Yahaya Bello will corner all the people to Lokoja and they will nominate him as the sole candidate.

“So, since there are factions in the party how will the party conduct the primaries? We believe that our faction and Yahaya Bello’s faction cannot conduct a free and fair primary.

Therefore, we are appealing to the national Secretariat of our party to do the needful to set up an independent caretaker committee to go and run the party in Kogi state until after the election have finished,” he added.

Kadri stressed that Momoh’s committee wrote a report which was not complementary to the governor, alleging that neither the party nor the governor did anything about it.

“We cried again and for a second time, the party invited us again to appear before another reconciliation committee headed this time by General Garba, we appeared there again.

That day I shed tears; why is APC paying us with unkind behaviour despite all the efforts that we made in taking Kogi out of the grips of the PDP? Why are we all now pushed outside,” Kadri said.

The forum insisted that its intention was not to destroy the party in Kogi State, adding that the faction of the party went to court because it wants the right thing to be done, but stated that if the right thing is not done, the forum would continue its protest either to the national party Secretariat or to the court.

The aspirants who attended the meeting include Prince Mustapha Audu, Dr. Timi Diche, Alhaji Aliyu Zakari Jiya, Alhaji Yusuf Ali, Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdullahi, Alhaji Idris Usman, Engr. Sunday Edibo, Alhaji Mohammed Ali, Gen. Patrick Akpa, Alhaji Yakubu Mohammed, Mr. Gowon Egbunu, Alhaji Yahaya Audu.

Others include, Prince Yahaya Sani, Admiral Jibril Usman, Dr. Aminu Audu, Prof. Seidu Mohammed Oga, Engr. Kasim Ali, Dr. Haruna Sheu, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar Audu, and Prince Shaibu Sani.