How Governor Yahaya Bello Imposed His Cousin As APC Candidate

One of the four aggrieved aspirants at the just concluded governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress in Kogi State, Senator Smart Adeyemi, has accused Governor Yahaya Bello of imposing his cousin on the state.

Adeyemi, who was featured on Channels Television’s Politics Today, on Monday, swore that contrary to the alleged forged result sent to the party’s national secretariat, no APC primary election was held in the state.

“The guy (Ododo) who was purported to have won this election is a cousin of Gov Yahaya Bello. There was no election. If we allow this to go on, a time will come when the governor will impose his son, on the state. This is the worst form of nepotism,” he said.

A livid Adeyemi on Monday described the entire process as a “rape of democracy.”

Recall that the Secretary of the election committee, Patrick Obahiagbon, had on Friday, announced the former Auditor General of Local Governments in Kogi State, Ahmed Ododo, as the winner of the governorship primary.

Ododo polled 78,704 votes to beat six other contestants including Adeyemi who came seventh with 311 votes.

But the lawmaker representing Kogi West Senatorial District strongly expressed reservation, saying the entire process was a charade geared toward installing Bello’s anointed candidate as the next governor of the state.

SaharaReporters on Friday had reported that the preferred candidate of Governor Bello was losing the APC primary by a wide margin, according to top officials.

The governor’s anointed candidate, Ododo, had been reportedly losing the primary to Muri Ajaka who has won 14 local government areas, according to verified results.

SaharaReporters had learnt that the governor was however fighting hard to ensure that his candidate was declared as the winner.

“Muri has won 14 LGAs. He won all the nine LGAs in Kogi East and also Ajaokuta, Lokoja, Koton, two LGs from Yoruba region. Muri Ajaka is seriously winning the primary election but Yahaya Bello is mounting a serious pressure on Governor Bello Matawalle (Zamfara) to declare his (Bello’s) candidate as the winner,” a top source privy to happenings at the poll had revealed.