Kogi Guber: APC Raked N363m From 16 Aspirants; Clears Bello, 3 Others

The All Progressive Congress (APC) has cleared Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State and three other governorship aspirants ahead of the party’s primary slated for August 29.

The other three aspirants cleared by the seven-member committee led by Senator Hope Uzodinma at the party’s national secretariat are Hassan Abdullahi, Ekete Aishat Blessing and Abubakar Bashir.

Twelve aspirants were disqualified for various reasons. They include the two sons of late Abubakar Audu — Mohammed Audu and Mustapha Audu. They were both disqualified on grounds of invalid nomination form and not being financial members of the party.

Others include Usman Jubril (retired Navy Admiral); Seidu Ogah (a professor); Yakubu Mohammed (journalist), Hadiza Ibrahim, Bashir Gegu, Sani Lulu, Tunde Irukera.

Mustapha Audu Reacts

In his reaction, Mustapha Audu said his disqualification was a “fraud” by the party authority in connivance with some members.

He said he had been sending money to the party and has bank transfer evidence to show even though the party does not issue a receipt.

“Every time the party called that they need money, I have always been giving them even though the party has never issued a receipt,” he said.

He accused the national chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole, of doing the bidding of Gov. Bello instead of ensuring a level playing ground for the aspirants.

“I have been trying to reach our party chairman on several occasions through calls and text messages but he has never responded only to be seen gallivanting around with Yahaya Bello,” he said.

“The chairman of the screening committee personally told me before the screening that his job is to remove 12 people but ended up removing 14 aspirants.”

When asked about his next line of action, he said what happened in Rivers State will repeat itself in Kogi as he is set to challenge the party decision in court.

“It will be the Rivers situation. What happened in Rivers was that they went to court and the court told them to hold on till the court decided but they went ahead with the primary which made the court decide that APC will not have a candidate in the last governorship election in the state.

“If you want to beat someone in the game, you need to beat them squarely not by cheating other aspirants after we have paid tens of millions for this. They collected our money with no single orientation or meeting,” he added.

He also said they will seek the help of the court and EFCC to investigate the abnormalities that happened during the screening.

The screening committee was inaugurated by the party chairman on August 21 while November 16 remains the date scheduled by INEC for the governorship election.

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