Four governorship aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
in the just-concluded gubernatorial primary election in Kogi State, have declared that the exercise did not hold, saying that the results announced by Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon were just allocated.
According to the aspirants, none of them voted in the said primary election, adding that there was no electoral officials in their local government areas.
They called on President Muhammadu Buhari, president-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Chairman of the APC not to accept the result of the Kogi State primary election.
The aspirants were Senator Smart Adeyemi; Murtala Yakubu Ajaka; Steven Ocheni and Shuaibu Abubakar Audu.
LEADERSHIP reports that the Secretary of the Kogi State Primary Election Committee, Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon, had at the State Secretariat of APC in Lokoja on Saturday morning, announced Ahmed Usman Ododo as the winner of the APC governorship primary election.
He said the total number of registered voters was 93,729 while 83,419 was numbers of accredited voters.
Obahiagbon said Shaibu Abubakar Audu scored 763 votes, Stephen Ikani Ocheni polled 552 votes, the former Executive Director of Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Dr Sanusi Ohiare, scored 424 votes while Smart Adeyemi, the incumbent Senator representing Kogi West, scored the least number of votes – 311.
The Secretary of the committee said Abubakar Yahaya Achimugu polled 1,159 votes, Salami Momodu Ozigi scored 1,506 votes and Ahmed Usman Ododo polled the highest number votes – 78,704 – and was consequently declared winner of the primary election.
But, reacting to the exercise on Saturday afternoon at a joint press conference in Abuja, the aggrieved four aspirants said the results announced were manufactured, adding that they couldn’t even vote in the said, primary election since electoral officials were not on ground.
They warned that if the APC National Working Committee (NWC) accepted such a result and the candidate, the party will lose in the forthcoming November, 2023 gubernatorial election.
According to Senator Adeyemi, “What happened is like having a bad military government. Nobody is a slave. Nobody is conquered. The argument that the East did 16 years is not an issue.”
He added that even the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) could not supervise the primary election.
“INEC did not show up in the election. Even security agents can attest to the fact that the election did not hold.
“The man they said they nominated can not win election. If there is need eventually, we will go to court. But the National Working Committee will not allow that to degenerate.
“If they rig, we will say they rig us out. But there was no election. They just went out and announced results of election we did not vote,” Adeyemi said.
Also speaking, Shuaibu Abubakar Audu said there was no election, adding that the results announced were fake.
“No election took place. All of us didn’t vote but results were generated.
“In the morning and afternoon, no election materials were available, no human being called electoral officers were available.
“Nothing like rigging. There was no election. If direct primaries is for the faithful party members to exercise their franchise, as aspirants, none of us voted,” he said.
On his part, Steven Ocheni, said: “We were all disenfranchised. We are rather scattering our party. In Kogi East where we have over a million votes and you do this to us? That is criminal. I wonder where the panel generates the results they announced.
“When people called me and said Prof, this is what you score, I asked them which exams. It is an exercise in futility.
“We are calling on Buhari, Tinubu and the national chairman of our party and all stakeholders to ensure that the purported result did not stand.
“It is not only a Kogi affair. It is a Nigerian affair. If not addressed, it will spread. We must leave a legacy of true and transparent democracy,” he said.
On his part, Murtala Yakubu Ajaka said even though some people manipulated the process and said they stopped him through the court, the election did not take place.
“The true members of the party turned out and gathered, waiting for the electoral materials but the electoral materials did not come.
“We are going to send our petitions. And by next week, we are putting our papers together and forward to the NWC. They will look into our case.
“We are not desperate to be governor, but the right thing should be done. It should go to Kogi West or Kogi East.
“They are threatening assassination now. They are threatening people with treason. I don’t know when a state is now threatening its citizens with treason. We are telling the people back home not to be afraid. Nobody should be afraid,” Ajaka stated.
