A civil society and good governance advocacy group sympathetic to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Confluence Rescue Mission (COREM), has appealed to the national leadership of the APC to take a critical look at the outcome of the KEEC screening as it is the voice of the people and a strong indication of their leaning.
The group makes a strong case for Vice Admiral Jibrin Usman (rtd) and urges the APC to consider him to fly the flag of the party in the forthcoming gubernatorial election slated for November, 2019.
The Publicity Secretary of the group, Comrade Usman Seidu, made the appeal at a press conference in Lokoja on Sunday. He stressed that the result of the screening is a clear statement to the fact that Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin is the preferred candidate of Kogi East for the forthcoming election.
Usman stated that Vice Admiral Usman, given his competence, wealth of experience, knack for excellence “and having scored the highest points out of over 40 guber aspirants screened by the Kogi East Elders Council committee, is the most qualified and ready to redeem our battered image as a state and to revive the comatose economy visited upon the people by the gross underperformance of the current government”.
The Vice Admiral, he said, is the best alternative to the incumbent governor whose tenure has been a disaster of epic proportions.
The group further elaborated on the negative impacts the maladministration of Yahaya Bello has visited on the image of APC in Kogi state.
“Governor Yahaya has lost popularity in Kogi State due to his highhanded style of governance and overall incompetence which has ruined the perception of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State.
“It is already a difficult task to change the perception of the people regarding the APC as occasioned by the unfortunate government of Yahaya Bello, it will be a disaster for the party to risk everything by handing him the ticket to run again.
“Yahaya Bello, having realised the difficult battle ahead, is already making illicit manoeuvres with some APC elements towards the primaries. He will fail woefully.
“Vice Admiral Jibrin Usman is APC’s best bet to defeat the PDP candidate, repair the damaged image of APC and to lead Kogi State out of the quagmire of socio-economic retrogression”.
Also, Kogi State APC Youth Vanguard has lambasted Bello for sponsoring a sham and kangaroo State party executives and stakeholders meeting to adopt an indirect mode of primaries for the November election.
The group also warned the governor against making moves that will not only torpedo the party but will jeopardize its chances of winning the election.
In a statement in Lokoja on Sunday, the political youth group said Bello’s hasty move to organise and sponsor a meeting of state party executives and teleguiding them to adopt an indirect mode of party primaries for the November election underscores the self-serving and desperate bid for re-election by the governor.
“Governor Yahaya Bello keep wasting billions of naira of Kogi State funds in his self-serving and desperate bid for a re-election in the face of the abject poverty and stringent economic climate the sole proprietorship and supermarket system of government he runs in Kogi have subjected the Kogi people during these 42 months of his dismally failed administration. This is unfortunate”, the group said.
The APC Youth Vanguard described the governor’s action as “confounding, outrageous, and the height of desperation.”
“We have not forgotten what befell the APC in Zamfara and Imo states. Governor Bello should not cause us troubles in a party we have suffered so much to install in Kogi State. We are grappling to market the APC in Kogi State at the moment due to Yahaya Bello’s award winning underperformance. He should not come and add more to our present precarious situation”, the statement said.
The group further warned that no amount of backroom gimmicks and political shenanigans by Bello would stall the change that is due in Kogi State.
