The 2012 race to lugard house in lokoja has commenced. We are not sure if People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Kogi State will field the winner of her last governorship primaries as political movements in the party shows some aggrieved aspirants are yearning for a fresh primaries. The primaries that produced Echocho is yet to be upturned or declared null and void by a competent court. A legal solution is the only option for now.
The main opposition party in the State, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) is not resting either. It is no longer news that the former governor of Kogi State, Prince Abubakar Audu, has finally left the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) for the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). According to Prince Audu, he did not defect from the ANPP to the ACN; rather, he said, his former party fused into the ACN, and that the ANPP had ceased to exist in the state. Abubakar Audu is obviously a formidable political force in Kogi State given his past electoral achievements. But a school of thought was also of the view that some of the gubernatorial aspirants of the party would not take things lightly with Audu.
It was gathered that the former Chaplain of Aso Rock Villa, Professor Yusuf Obaje, who won the ACN gubernatorial primary ahead the aborted gubernatorial election, was not happy with the merger of the two parties. Sources close to Professor Obaje disclosed to Nigerian tribune that the former Chaplain, who is from Kogi-East, mobilised his supporters to stay away from the merger ceremony which took place in Lokoja. It was learnt that Professor Obaje was set to work against the interest of the party if the ticket was withdrawn from him.
Another gubernatorial aspirant of the ACN in Kogi State, Mr. Rotimi Obadofin, while reacting to the merger of his party and the ANPP, said that everybody in the state knew him as a gubernatorial aspirant of the party. He said that, as far he was concerned, the merger would not affect him but rather make him more popular among his supporters in the state. ”I am not afraid of Audu; we have our guidelines in the party. I was on the ground before his arrival. Things are not going to be easy for anybody in the party; we are going for a primary to elect the person that will win the party’s ticket,” he said. He disclosed that he was getting set for the primary, noting that with a total support from the party supporters in the state, he would be the gubernatorial candidate of the party next year.
Apart from Obadofin, who was at the venue of the merger, there is also from within the ACN, another gubernatorial aspirant, Tom Maiachi, former Managing Director of the Ajaokuta Iron and Steel Company. The state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Hassan Salawu, speaking with Nigerian Tribune, said the merger of the two opposition parties would not affect the PDP in the state. He said that the party would remain focused ahead of next year’s gubernatorial election in the state, stressing that the two parties could not withstand the popularity and acceptability of the PDP in the state. ”We cannot be intimidated by the merger; it will not hold water. The PDP is fully on the ground; the administration of Governor Ibrahim Idris has done a lot for the people of the state, and we don’t see any opposition parties as a threat in the state,” he said. Nonetheless, the battle for the sole ticket of the ACN in the state will not come to any of the aspirants on a platter of gold. As it has been noted by analysts, they will have to work hard for it, especially Audu, if he really wants the ticket.