Yahaya Bello to emerge Kogi governor unchallenged as the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP risks missing out of Kogi guber elections, Newsflash247 reports
Indications have emerged that Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi state might go into the November 16th Kogi governorship contest without a major challenger as the main opposition party in the state, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP stands the risk of loosing out of the contest following their inability to get an elected candidate from it’s botched September 3rd governorship primaries which held at Confluence stadium, Lokoja.
Newsflash247 had earlier reported that the Kogi PDP governorship primaries became inconclusive when armed Thugs invaded the venue, shooting sporadically into the air and dispersed the delegates, bringing the primaries to an abrupt end even as counting of votes was ongoing.
Newsflash247 gathered that that PDP might be unable to present a valid candidate in the forthcoming November 16th Kogi governorship election as the deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC for the final submission of names of candidates by political parties who wishes to participate in the elections remains Thursday, 5th of September 2019 and the PDP might be unable to rouse the rubble out of it’s crashed November 3rd primaries to enable it to conduct a fresh and acceptable primaries so as to meet the deadline.
Recall that the Nigerian Supreme Court recently set aside the election of all APC political office holders in Zamfara state citing invalid primaries and the inability of the APC in Zamfara to submit the names of their candidates before the deadline set out by INEC in their 2019 general elections timetable.
Another source, an APC chieftain who spoke to our correspondent from Okenne, the home town of the governor, has argued that even if Kogi PDP manipulates the process to submit the name of a candidate without going through the proper procedures of the primaries and go forward to win the election proper, Yahaya Bello and the APC can easily go to the court to reclaim the mandate on the precedent already established by the apex court in the ruling against Zamfara APC.
Calls placed to the known numbers of the National Publicity secretary of the PDP, Mr Kola Alagbondiyon were not answered and the text messages sent to him prodding him to react to the development were fruitless and the PDP at the time of filing this report is yet to make an official statement on the ugly incident that trailed their September 3rd governorship primaries in Lokoja.
