A new candidate for the Kogi Governorship Supplementary elections has emerged after serious deliberation by the APC leaders in Kogi state.
Prince Abubakar Audu
Kogi election is still generating controversy within the All Progressives Congress (APC) as unconfirmed reports suggests that the party has picked Yahaya Bello as the new candidate for the Kogi governorship supplementary election.
If true, Bello will replace Prince Abubakar Audu, who died last weekend after leading the poll with 41,000. It was also learnt that the APC has retained Hon. James Abiodun Faleke as the party’s deputy governorship candidate. This decision is bound to generate heated controversy as many APC supporters in Kogi state want Mohammed Audu, son of the late governorship candidate to replace his father.
The decision to give the ticket to Yahaya will come as a shock to Faleke, who was late Audu's running mate and has been lobbying to be given the vacant slot to fly the party's flag in the supplementary election. He has been asked to withdraw from the race.
It was also gathered that the APC leaders felt there was no way Mohammed Audu could be fielded as a compromise candidate since he was not a candidate in the primaries.
A top source in APC said: “Our leaders met and after consultations reached a conclusion on the choice of Yahaya Bello from Kogi Central as the party’s governorship candidate to substitute the late Prince Abubakar Audu.
“The leaders arrived at the conclusion because Bello was second to Audu at the validly conducted governorship primaries of the party. Instead of running into crisis with fresh primaries, the party opted to dust up the result of the previous one which was witnessed by INEC.
“A letter, signed by the National Chairman of APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, on the choice of Bello has been submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday.”