The All Progressives Congress (APC) Vanguard in Kogi West Senatorial District has warned against the imposition of Senator Smart Adeyemi as candidate of the party by the stage Governor, Yahaya Bello saying such an action will be a receipt for defeat in the general election.
In a letter to the National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole dated 19th September 2018 and signed by convened of the group, Comrade Ayo Alonge said Senator Adeyemi does not have what it takes to win the Senatorial district saying the Senator lost the last election on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) because he was imposed on the people.
Alonge said it has information that Gov. Yahaya Bello has perfected plots to arbitrarily foist on them, Senator Smart Adeyemi to fly the party’s flag in next year’s senatorial election.
The letter entitled: “Fairness, Equity and Transparency, Panacea for Disastrous Electoral Outing For APC In Kogi West” said despite its insistence on “a level playing ground for all aspirants on equity and fairness in a free, transparent and credible primary election that will produce our party’s candidate for the Senate”, the governor has concluded his plans to impose Senator Adeyemi on the party.
The group said part of the plot to impose Adeyemi on APC faithful in the zone was to tilt the congresses in his favour, saying “the congresses of the party that produced delegates to vote in the indirect primaries were fundamentally flawed and compromised because names were written, compiled and affirmed by Bello’s appointees.”
They alleged that “the Kogi state APC chairman accompanied by party chairmen of seven local government areas in Kogi West, the Speaker of the State Assembly and the State Security Adviser purchased the nomination and expression of interest forms and delivered to Senator Smart Adeyemi at his Maitama residence.”
They also alleged that “in flagrant abuse of party guidelines, the forms were submitted on Monday 17, 2018 when submission closed officially on Wednesday, 12th September 2018.”
It alleged that printing of fake ballot papers have been contracted by Gov Bello for the primaries while arrangements have been concluded with some party officials at the headquarters to divert authentic ballot papers to Kogi State Government House to manipulate the process.
They also alleged that the state government purchased forms for some aspirants in Yagba Federal Constituency to break their ranks in a mischievous divide and rule tactics and warned against looming crisis in the party “if the despotic activities of Gov Yahaya Bello are not curtailed”.
The group said it had protested the open and undemocratic endorsement of Senator Adeyemi by Bello saying that it was against the existing rotation arrangement in the Senatorial District and reminded the APC national chairman that the PDP had lost the zone in 2015 when it imposed Adeyemi on the people, adding that “the futile bid created a lot of confusion in an arrangement that is still with us.
The group further alleged that “coercion, intimidation and harassment is now the order of the day all in a desperate bid to manipulate the process to skew the primaries in favour of an aspirant.”
It also called for the deployment of persons of proven integrity to conduct the party primaries in Kogi West, calling for the utilisation of numbered ballot papers with security features to expose and render unusable the already printed fake ballot papers meant to be used.
Credit: The Nation
