There was jubilation amongst leaders and supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi on Sunday following their feat in winning all the 25 seats in the state assembly.
Daily Trust reports that the APC had earlier won 23 out of the 25 seats during the March 9 state assembly polls while the remaining two seats – Lokoja 1 and Igalamela-Odolu constituencies which were earlier declared inconclusive were won by the party on Saturday.
In the National Assembly election, the APC won the two out the three senatorial seats and seven out of the nine House of Representatives seats in the state.
Reacting to the performance of the APC in Kogi, Director General of APC Campaign Council in the state, who is also Chief of Staff to the Kogi State Governor, Chief David Onoja, said the successful outing by the party was as a result of non-imposition candidates.
Onoja also said that another critical factor that contributed to the party’s winning streak was the quick resolution of pockets of disputes that came up after the primaries were conducted.
“Those who did not make it at the primaries were quickly engaged in sincere dialogue with the party leadership and they shelved their ambitions, joined the winners of the primaries and worked collectively for the success of the party. This is the Principle of everybody is important within the party”, he said.
According to him, the good leadership style of Governor Yahaya Bello coupled with the effective communication between the leadership of the party from top to the bottom were also critical to the party’s success in the last elections.
“In Kogi state, governance and politicking had an unbroken chain of network from the very top to the unit level where the actions of winning or losing elections takes place.
“We put in place effective networking in a very transparent and open manner. When the leader of the party gives directions, it goes down to the least unit within the party and no one was left behind in the scheme of things”, he said.
On his part, the Kogi state chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Bello, who expressed delight over the outing of the party at the polls, said the overwhelming victory of the APC at the polls were clear indications that the party was more united and positioned for any electoral contest in the state.
The Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the governor, Mohammed Onogwu, said, “The people have shown that they trust the APC-led administration because the achievements are visible enough to speak for themselves.
“The victory that APC recorded in the 2019 polls is without doubt a reward for hard work, sincerity, transparency and accountability”.
