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From Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja
The Kogi State APC Campaign Council has expressed confidence that the party would emerge victorious over its rival PDP in next month’s general elections.
This is coming on the heels of a mega rally which took place on Saturday at Lokoja Confluence Stadium where the presidential candidate of the party, Atiku Abubakar, and his running mate, Ifeanyi Okowa, were warmly received by a large crowd
Addressing a news conference in Lokoja on Monday, Commissioner of Information and spokesman of the Campaign Council, Kingsley Fanwo, said the large crowd that attended the rally were hired from neighbouring states adding that the PDP has been ‘conquered and decapitated ‘in the state
Fanwo, who said the APC was not losing sleep over those who defected to the opposition party at the event, said with or without them the APC was sure of winning the state landslide.
“Dismayed by the poor turnout, the PDP resorted to theatrics. It rolled out expired individuals who had been expunged from the ranks of the APC for their unsavory deeds and characters, and proceeded to canonise them,” he said.
“The rally turned into a farce when people like the former Deputy Governor of the State, Elder Simeon Achuba, and the former speaker of the state assembly, Rt Hon Alfa Imam, were repackaged for Atiku as Kogi APC stalwarts who were decamping to the PDP at the rally.
“What Atiku and his entourage might not have known is that this is the same Achuba who was impeached from office with ignominy by the state assembly for gross misconduct during the first term of the administration. He rejoined his former bedmates in the PDP ahead of the 2019 general elections and failed to deliver even his own Ward in that year’s presidential, legislative and gubernatorial elections.
“Rt Hon Alfa Imam is another has-been whose poor leadership pitched him in a running battle with his colleagues when he was Speaker of the State House of Assembly. At the cusp of being impeached, he pleaded to be allowed to resign. He was obliged and he too left office and our party in 2019.
“Shortly he decamped to the SDP, another rickety platform in Kogi State where his presence was as ineffectual as his departure was unfelt in the APC. We won the 2019 landslide without them. Since then, the two men have failed in their political self-delusions and have continued to fail.
“It soon became clear that the political jesters in Kogi PDP had deliberately lied to their Dubai-based Presidential Candidate and his hangers-on that all projects in Kogi State were done by them, so the poor man spent his time on the podium attributing the massive projects constructed by Yahaya Bello, either to a man who left office over one decade before construction started on them or to the PDP Administration in which he used to be number two.
“While the lies that Alh. Ibrahim Idris built everything that looks like modern infrastructure in Kogi as insinuated at the rally is, of course, a figment of the speakers’ fevered imaginations, it is a national embarrassment to the PDP that they failed Kogi people so woefully despite having so long to make a difference.
“It is on record that Alh Ibrahim Idris left his own Abejukolo community in darkness in his nine years in office. It took the present administration to restore power to his benighted community. He also left Abejukolo roads in pitiable states. Today, the APC through this administration and the likes of Hon. Abdullahi Ibrahim (Halims) of the APC is bringing respite.
“What is not in doubt is that the Yahaya Bello-led APC administration has changed the face of Kogi State. The legacy projects executed, some of which were recently commissioned by Mr President, are too numerous to mention here.
“The Research and Strategy Directorate of the PDP Presidential Candidate should have interacted with civil servants in Kogi State to find out how the State Government is not owing a single month’s salary. Even the months owed by Wada and bequeathed to Yahaya Bello in 2016 have been cleared,” he added
