…Aspirants in a last-minute man oeuvre to stave off a disqualification. There is a brewing tension regarding reports of disqua...
…Aspirants in a last-minute man oeuvre to stave off a
disqualification.
There is a brewing tension regarding reports
of disqualification of several Kogi governorship aspirants of the ruling All
Progressives Congress APC, with many of them holding different strategy-review
meetings in Abuja on Monday to decide their immediate political future should
the party hierarchy uphold their disqualification.
The committee report which was obtained by Vanguard shows
that only four out of the 16 contestants were cleared by the committee among
which is the incumbent Governor, Yahaya Bello, Engr. Abubakar Bashir, Mrs Ekele
Aishat Blessing and a member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Hassan Abdullahi
Baiwa.
Those who were disqualified were a former Chief of Naval
Staff, Admiral Usman Oyibe Jibrin, Prof. Mohammed Seidu Onailo, Prince Mustapha
Mona Audu, Hadiza Iyoma Ibrahim, Yahaya Odidi Audu, Sani Lulu Abdullahi, Gen.
Patrick Ademu Akpa (retd), Engr. Danlami Umar Mohammed, Yakubu Mohammed,
Babatunde Ayokunle Irukera, Rukkaya Ibrahim and Mohammed Abubakar Unekwu Audu.
The
aspirants were disqualified based on sundry issues including not having
Permanent Voter Cards PVCs, not being a financial member of the party, not
being a member of the party for at least one year, age discrepancies, invalid
nomination and not being a registered member of the APC at the ward level.
Earlier in the day, some supporters of the Director-General/Chief Executive
Officer of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission FCCPC,
Barr. Babatunde Irukera had taken to the social media to protest the
disqualification of their principal, accusing the Sen. Hope Uzodinma APC
Screening Committee of clearing three lackeys of Gov. Yahaya Bello to square up
with him during the primaries on August 29.
At the national secretariat of the party, Prince Mustapha
Mona Audu, one of the sons of late Prince Abubakar Audu, a former Governor of
the state caused a mild scene when he took his verbal protest to party
officials.
Some of the aspirants, Vanguard gathered are currently holding
meetings with their supporters in Abuja to decide on their next line of action.
Many of them had canvassed the disqualification of Gov. Bello on the grounds
that he was discovered to have registered twice for a Permanent Voter Card PVC,
saying he is liable to prosecuting by the Independent National Electoral
Commission INEC.
The National Working Committee NWC of the party would,
however, meet to deliberate on the committee’s report and decide whether to
grant a waiver to any of the aspirants, especially those disqualified on the
basis of having not been a member of the party for more than one year.
COMMENTS