National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, has hailed Kogi State governor and Chairman of the Ondo State Primary Election Committee, Usman Ahmed Ododo.
Ododo was appointed head of the seven-man committee that conducted Saturday’s governorship primary election in all the 18 local government areas of Ondo State, while former Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, served as secretary.
Although some of the aspirants kicked against the process, accusing Ododo of a shoddy job, Ganduje, said the governor lived up to expectation.
The APC chairman said this when he received official report of the conduct of the poll, on Tuesday.
Ododo and his team were received by the APC National Chairman at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
While presenting the report, Ododo said,
He said, “The APC primary election has successfully produced a candidate to fly the flag of our great party come November 16, 2024, in Ondo State. Your Excellency, I sincerely and greatly appreciate your style of leadership. I also want to thank our members for giving you the needed support in painstakingly selecting very committed, sincere and experienced politicians to work as a team in that committee.
“We also thank members of our great party in Ondo State and other stakeholders in different communities for giving us the needed cooperation and understanding. Everything that happened in the Ondo State election has been penciled down in these reports. I hereby present the report to the national chairman and the NWC.
“On this note, I want to present the reports of the governorship election one after the other. Here is the summary report as collated at the State collation centre in Ondo where about 16 aspirants contested. Today, we now have a candidate we are all proud of and I appealed to all the aspirants to unite with him ahead of the governorship election.”
Responding, Ganduje said, “This is your first official political assignment outside Kogi State. You have made history because of the political dexterity with which you and your team conducted this primary. Nigerians are proud of you.
“You have observed the party constitution and guidelines regarding the conduct of this election. The certificate of return will be issued later to the APC candidate. I want to thank you for a good job.”
He added that he would present it to the National Working Committee (NWC) for adoption.
Ondo State governor, Aiyedatiwa defeated the 15 aspirants to clinch the party’s ticket at the primary election which ran into the second day.
