President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and All Progressives Congress (APC) governors have asked the people of Kogi State to reject strangers and vote for the candidate of the party, Usman Ododo, in the November 11 governorship election.
They said voting Ododo would provide the opportunity for the consolidation of the outstanding dividends of democracy that have been visibly provided by the APC under Governor Yahaya Bello in the state,
Tinubu and the governors spoke yesterday in Lokoja, the state capital where the National Campaign Council for the Kogi State Governorship Election was flagged off.
The APC leaders urged Kogites not to vote for strangers whose stock-in-trade was propaganda but sustain the trajectory of development in the state by voting en masse for the APC.
Vice President Kashim Shettima, who represented President Tinubu at the event, expressed the optimism that the APC would win the election resoundingly.
He assured the people of the state that they were about to vote in a man with the intellectual capacity to consolidate on the many achievements of his boss, Governor Yahaya Bello.
He said, “For us to build on the legacy and for the purpose of continuity and consolidation, it becomes imperative for the people of Kogi State to align themselves with the power at the centre.
“President Tinubu is a man of courage and conviction, he is a man pregnant with ideas on how to reposition the nation, but Kogi, which is one of the frontiers of the North, Kogi, the Confluence State, cannot afford to have a state government that does not belong to the power at the centre.
“For the people of Kogi State to benefit immensely from the eight-point agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for the people of Kogi State to benefit from the natural resources, it is absolutely essential that we should vote for a much more patriotic person who is grounded with the reality in Kogi State.
“Most important to the people of Kogi State is the Ajaokuta Steel Company that is the largest steel industry in the country. The President appointed a son of Kogi State from one of the prominent families in the state, Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu, to be the minister of steel development. Fundamentally, he was given the appointment to promote, project and preserve the interest of the people of Kogi State to see to the realisation of the Ajaokuta Steel Company, which of course, is 98 percent completed. Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, who is the chairman of the APC National Campaign Council for Kogi State Governorship Election, insisted that APC was the only party in the state and urged the people not to make the mistake of not consolidating on visible gains, ensuring the continuity of good governance and aligning with the party in the centre.
Governor Abiodun welcomed thousands of defectors from opposition parties, who had just declared on Sunday for the APC, saying they had taken the best decision to stay with the winning train in the interest of the state’s sustained development.
The defectors were from the People’s Democratic Party, Labour Party, Social Democratic Party, Accord Party and the African Democratic Congress, among others.
The national chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Ganduje, called for the unity of APC members in the coming Governorship election and urged the people of the state to shun ethnicity, stressing that what everyone should look forward to is the victory party for the APC.
“Without mincing words. The only party in Kogi is the APC. We have all it takes to mobilise massively for the APC governorship candidate.
I’m looking forward to a victory party because we parade the best candidate who has uniting the people as his priority. Let’s shun tribalism and ethnicity,” Ganduje stated.
In his remarks, Ododo promised to build on the outstanding achievements of Governor Bello, assuring the people that, if elected, their welfare would be his administration’s priority.
“I’m promising more youth and women inclusiveness in governance. My agenda for the state is the Kogi Agenda. I will not disappoint our leader and father, President Bola Tinubu; I will not disappoint my mentor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello; I will not disappoint our party and I will not disappoint the good people of Kogi State. We will consolidate on the achievements of my leader in the state and strive towards continuity and sustainability in the areas of security, education, agriculture, and improved infrastructure, amongst several areas the APC administration has made a mark,” he said.
He concluded that his mandate would be for the overall development of the State, stressing the improvement in the achievements of Governor Bello and in the wellbeing of his people as his priority.
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