The Kogi West Elders Forum (KWEF) has adopted Mr Leke Abejide of African Democratic Party (ADC) as their consensus candidate for the Nov. 11, Kogi Governorship Election.
The forum made this position known in a communiqué of the endorsement signed its Chairman, Maj.-Gen. David Jemibewon, rtd. and read by the Secretary, Dr Tunde Arosanyin, on Monday in Abuja.
The forum however, said it was not unaware of the pending case at the Supreme Court instituted by one of their sons, Sen. Smart Adeyemi of the All Progressive Congress (APC) against the party’s primaries.
They said the forum could revisit the endorsement should the case favours Adeyemi to be able to carry everyone along.
Reading the communique, Arosanyin said it had become necessary to elucidate the approach of KWEF and how the forum had interceded to endorse a consensus candidate for the West Senatorial District in the forthcoming governorship election.
He said the forum had hitherto, agitated for power to rotate to the west since 2019, adding that the agitation was considered legitimate, reasonable, fair and in the interest of peace, equity, and justice in the state.
This, according to him, was because the district had been ‘shortchanged’ from the power-sharing arrangement to occupy the exalted office of the Executive Governor of the state since its creation in 1991.
The secretary said the elders had worked with other groups like the Okun Development Association (ODA) and Okun Think Thank (OTT) with similar objectives and reinvigorated the mechanism for the demand immediately after INEC released the timetable for the election in early 2023.
