Former Kogi State Governor Abubakar Audu’s ambition to get the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for this year’s governorship election got a boost at the weekend when the party’s delegates from 21 local government areas endorsed him in Lokoja, the state capital.
The party’s delegates converged on Audu’s home in the town and endorsed him ahead of the August 29 primary.
The Deputy Director-General of Prince Audu Campaign Organisation and one-time Commissioner for Water Resources, Salihu Akawu Saidu (aka SAS), said nobody was happy with the situation in the state under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The spokesman urged the delegates to vote for Audu, who he said was the best candidate among the aspirants.
On power shift, Saidu said: “We only differ on the strategy to achieve it. Some of them believe that it is anchored on Audu, after serving his remaining four years.”
An APC chieftain and former commissioner, Hajia Halima Alfa, likened the current situation in Kogi State to the predicament the nation experienced under the last PDP-led Federal Government.
She said the nation was fed up with the PDP, adding that this was the reason the electorate voted for President Muhammadu Buhari to change the country for the better.
Hajia Alfa urged APC’s delegates and the electorate to vote for Audu who she described as a man of his word and a “tested and trusted leader”.
Audu thanked the delegates for endorsing him ahead of the party’s primary and the confidence they had in his ability to make Kogi a better state.
The former governor, who gave a brief history of the agitation for power shift in the state, said he was the first leader to promise same in 2003.
A statement yesterday by Abdulmalik Suleiman said Audu noted that this was necessary to ensure peace, justice and equity across the state.
The former governor promised that if elected, he would make power shift realisable.
He added: “I will create jobs for the jobless and put the state back on the path of greatness.”
Dignitaries at the event included a former minister, a senator, former and serving members of the House of Representatives and House of Assembly across the state.
