A pressure group known as Okun Youth Conscience Mandate, OYCM, from Kogi West Senatorial district has endorsed the aspiration of All Progressives Congress, APC, leader in the state, ex-governor Abubakar Audu, to fly the party’s ticket for the November 2015 governorship election.
Coordinator of OYCM, Samuel Oriyomi, who led members of the group on a solidarity visit to Prince Audu in Abuja, called on Kogi people to set aside sentiment and back the ex-governor as a solution to the battered economy, unemployment and infrastructural decay in the state.
Speaking with journalists shortly after the visit, Oriyomi, however, advised the people of Kogi West and Central senatorial districts to discountenance recent purported outing of few self-serving and political opportunists clamouring for division of the state along ethnic and senatorial lines.
He noted that move by the Forum for Equity and Justice aimed at fielding a single governorship candidate of Kogi Central and Kogi West senatorial districts extraction to confront an Igala candidate from Kogi East negates the principle of democracy, though it is unachievable.
Noting that the gangup will soon collapse like pack of cards, the coordinator argued that although Igala-dominated Kogi East senatorial district has produced successive governors of the state since its creation, it doesn’t require any gangsterism to resolve powersharing and rotation in the state.
He further argued that, rather than seek an unworkable coalition; the politicians in the two districts should feel concerned about current state of decay and unprecedented development gaps in the state and join hands with a trusted and tested leader like Audu to urgently redirect the course of the state from drifting further.
According to Oriyomi, “Everyone knows the kind of person Audu is; a very disciplined and gentle man, highly principled, a man of proven integrity. We are not singing his praises but that is exactly how he is. Those knowledgeable about him know he cherishes Kogi State like his baby.”
The group, which draws membership mainly from the Yoruba-speaking area of the state, called on counterparts in the Central Senatorial district to support Audu’s candidacy.
Oriyomi said there is need to sustain the resounding victory APC recorded in the just concluded presidential/ National and House of Assembly elections, warning that any attempt to cause division within the party’s rank by suggesting any divisive tendency will spell doom for the party in the governorship election.
