‘We are resolute to stop Tinubu’s expansion into Kogi State’
The leadership of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State has vowed to halt former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s incursion into the politics of the north central state by making sure that all his political associates are denied any political appointment in the state or to represent the state at the federal level.
Alhaji Suleiman Ejibunu and Chief Richard Asaje, two prominent leaders of the party in the state said this in a statement they jointly signed and issued in Lokoja on January 2, 2017.
In the statement, the two leaders from from Kogi West called on President Muhammadu Buhari to reject James Faleke, if nominated as a replacement for the late Minister of State for Labour, James Ocholi, who died in an auto crash in March 2016.
Faleke is believed to be Tinubu’s ally whom the national leader is planning to get appointed as Ocholi’s replacement.
They warned that if Faleke gets the ministerial slot of Kogi State, his nomination and eventual confirmation by the Senate would further polarize the party in the state.
“If at all Faleke and his godfather, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, deserve any and not the ministerial slot of Kogi State to avoid serious crisis in the Kogi APC as such a move may lead to the exit of every prominent, loyal and committed member of the party while aggaravating the fractionalisation of the party along many divides.
“We are also unequivocally resolute to stop Tinubu’s expansion into Kogi State or any state in the North-Central; we are determined to push out all his cohorts from Kogi come 2018/2019. It is a task that must be done through all legal/political means. They have failed and they will continue to fail,” the statement read.” Giving him such an appointment will amount to providing him fuel to fire on the breakup of APC in the state. Faleke alongside Honourable Buba Jibril in the West Senatorial Area of Kogi State have formed illegal party structures and lay claim to illegal stakeholder structure for which a petition is already before the national leadership of the party.”
The leaders said if Buhari must compensate Faleke, he should find other means to do it and not hand him a Kogi State ministerial slot.
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