The governorship candidate of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) in the forthcoming governorship elections in Kogi State, Elder Ubolo Okpanachi, has denied the allegation that he engaged in physical combat with the Governor Ibrahim Idris. The story around town suggests he was sacked as a result of the fisticuff.
“It is a complete falsehood”, he said.
“The governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris is old enough to be my father and we are not brought up in my family to even confront our elders with even hard words talk more of going to exchange punch. People take more joy in spreading falsehood than the truth.”
On why he left Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and now ANPP, he said, “I started my quest to be governor of the state with the full support of the governor and I went all round and campaigned among my party men. I got a lot of support but surprisingly, at the tail of the January 9 primary we were told by the governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris that we all should step down for Alhaji Jibrin Isa Echocho.”
“Well, I looked at it and said, I could not accept what Alhaji Ibrahim Idris was telling us that the primary was going to be free and fair. And that primary which we all thought was going to be free and fair according to his promises was converted into a kind of dictatorship and we were told to step down, which mean what he told us could not be adhered to and that was why I, out of protest, left. I looked at it as a high level of injustice.”
“We left for the ACN believing that a good level playing would be allowed for everybody in the ACN to take advantage of whatever is available. When we got to the ACN, I moved round and the environment was fully charged to deliver me as candidate but on the eve of the primary again the message of the ACN leadership was delivered to us that they were not going to conduct primary election and that Alhaji Abubakar Audu has been taken as the party candidate and I told them there that the same leadership made us to believe that ACN was a party for justice, but in truth justice is far away to them.”
“At this stage I was fed up and I thought of quitting the scene but my numerous supporters who believe that we have got what it takes to win the election, even on whatever party kept on encouraging me. So we looked at it that if we must continue we should go to ANPP that has been a relevant party in the state.”
Okpanachi however promised to tackle poverty and unemployment if elected by the good people of Kogi State.
“The problem with Kogi state is poverty and unemployment, so my first focus will be to tackled these, no doubt the state is blessed with abundant human and natural resources, for example out of 37 viable mineral resources in the country, Kogi state has about 27. So what I will do is to convert these resources for the creation of wealth for our people, first by encouraging foreign investors and wealthy Kogi indigenes to invest in the state.”
“I will also harness our dormant cultural resources and colonial centres to become tourist centres which will create jobs and fetch millions for the state.”