Oloruntimilehin Ayomide
The protest of supporters of an aspirant in the primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Babatunde Irukera over his earlier disqualification has yielded the desired result.
This is because the leadership of the ruling party heeded the call of the protesters and cleared him earlier Thursday for the contest.
Irukera’s supporters had on Wednesday evening on the platform of Kogi Mandate Group blocked the entrance to the party secretariat demanding explanation for the disqualification of their candidate for the Kogi State governorship primary election.
It was allegedly said that, the National Working Committee of the party omitted Irukera’s name from the list of cleared aspirants even after he had been cleared for the contest by the Appeals Committee of the Party.
Irukera was disqualified by the Screening Committee headed by Senator Hope Uzodinma for invalid declaration of age and for not attaching his academic credentials and his nomination form not duly signed.
The group blamed the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party for shutting out Irukera to pave way for Governor Yahaya Bello to come into view at the primary billed to hold in Lokoja, the state capital on Thursday.
“We have evidence that in the result for screening panel, it was written boldly that he was cleared. We want justice on this issue. The Party should not be left out in the wrong hands.
“Let APC do justice to ensure that Babatunde features in the Primaries otherwise what happened in Zamfara State would happen in Kogi State,’’ the spokesperson for the group, Amos Alfa earlier said.
Alfa said this while expressing surprise that the Party went ahead to disqualify Irukera in spite of the fact that he was cleared by the Screening Committee of the Party.
Some of the cardboard brandished by the protesters had inscriptions like: “Hope and Oshomhole! Stop sale of Kogi Governor Ticket to Bello, He can’t win election,” “APC learn from Zamfara Mistakes.”
The APC primary election in Kogi State ahead of the governorship election holds on Thursday in Lakoja and winner of the contest is expected to fly the party’s flag at the main governorship election later in the year.
