Crisis Hits Kogi APC as 20 Governorship Aspirants Move Against Yahaya Bello
Ahead of the November 16 governorship election in Kogi state, 20 governorship aspirants on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Monday, rejected Governor Yahaya Bello’s adoption of indirect primaries to select the party’s candidate.
The aspirants who met at the Maitama-Abuja home of Senator Alex Kadiri under the auspices of Kogi APC Stakeholders Forum also called on the leadership of the party to adopt the direct primary option in the selection of the governorship candidate.
Addressing newsmen yesterday, leader of the forum, Senator Kadiri bemoaned what he called the attempt by the governor to hijack the party, warning that fielding him for the November polls will give the opposition an edge, particularly, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
“As we preparing for the gubernatorial primaries, we want it known that we the leaders of the APC as well as the 20 aspirants of our party are opposed to the Yahaya Bello’s contrived method of doing primaries because we are told that he gathered his appointees in 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 Bello 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 and we want to stop it.
“He cannot be a judge unto himself as this is irresponsible. We are saying that the primaries for Kogi state must be direct primaries where all members of the party from all the Local Government Areas 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,” a text of the press conference read.
Senator Kadiri, who defended the decision of his faction to head to court, also chided the governor for the division in the party saying, “We want to reiterate for the third time that APC in Kogi state is divided and because of that division, we went to court. The case is still in court and we have not been able to fast track that judgement the way Zamfara state was fast tracked.
The aspirants who met at the Maitama-Abuja home of Senator Alex Kadiri under the auspices of Kogi APC Stakeholders Forum also called on the leadership of the party to adopt the direct primary option in the selection of the governorship candidate.
Addressing newsmen yesterday, leader of the forum, Senator Kadiri bemoaned what he called the attempt by the governor to hijack the party, warning that fielding him for the November polls will give the opposition an edge, particularly, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
“As we preparing for the gubernatorial primaries, we want it known that we the leaders of the APC as well as the 20 aspirants of our party are opposed to the Yahaya Bello’s contrived method of doing primaries because we are told that he gathered his appointees in 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 Bello 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 and we want to stop it.
“He cannot be a judge unto himself as this is irresponsible. We are saying that the primaries for Kogi state must be direct primaries where all members of the party from all the Local Government Areas 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,” a text of the press conference read.
Senator Kadiri, who defended the decision of his faction to head to court, also chided the governor for the division in the party saying, “We want to reiterate for the third time that APC in Kogi state is divided and because of that division, we went to court. The case is still in court and we have not been able to fast track that judgement the way Zamfara state was fast tracked.
Nobody should blame us for going to court because we believe we have the right. All the things Yahaya Bello and his people are doing now are all illegal because the committee with which he is working has no legal standing anywhere in law.”
Posted in Kogi News
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