Fresh crisis brews in Kogi APC as party leaders oppose Bello's re-election -

Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State have asked the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to stop governor Yahaya Bello from being imposed on them through an indirect primary.

The decision was reached at a meeting attended by 17 of the 20 candidates for the November 16 governorship election in the state in Abuja on Monday.

Speaking to newsmen after the meeting, Senator Alex Kadiri said “We want to reiterate that APC Kogi State is divided, because of the division we went to court. The case is still in court and we have not been able to fast-track the judgment like the one in Zamfara State.

“What Governor Yahaya Bello and his people are doing now are all illegal because the committee they are working with has no legal standing.

“But as we are preparing for the primary, we want it known that we the leaders of the APC and the 20 aspirants of our party are opposed to Yahaya Bello’s contrived method of doing the primary.

“He cannot be a judge of himself, this is irresponsible. We are saying that the Kogi State primary must be a direct primary where all members of the party from all the local government areas will choose who they want as their candidate.”

According to the leaders, the APC has no chance of winning the polls with Bello as its candidate, because the governor was not popular in the state.

The group said, “We have tried to bend over backwards to accommodate Yahaya Bello. This is a man who after losing the 2015 primary abandoned the party and we have evidence that he actually worked for the PDP in that election. But because of the death of Alhaji Abubakar Audu, he was posted to Kogi as sole administrator to the state government.”