Candidates of the Labour Party (LP), Okeme Adejo; All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Idoko Ilonah, and the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Sam Omale, for the November 11 governorship election in Kogi State have dispelled claims of the emergence of a consensus candidate for the election.
Addressing a press conference on Sunday in Abuja, the LP candidate, Adejo, who recalled the series of meetings held by eleven candidates of various political parties on the issue of consensus, disclosed that the names of three nominees for final selection by the Chief Gabriel Aduku committee were yet to be arrived at.
A statement yesterday by the Director of Communication of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Governorship Campaign Organisation, Faruk Adejoh-Audu, had indicated that four of the nine candidates from Kogi East Senatorial District had adopted the party’s candidate, Yakubu Ajaka, as their consensus candidate.
But Adejo said, “We are still in the process of doing so. We are already hearing of all kinds of endorsements by various conflicting committees, but we have not arrived at any consensus candidate yet as we speak.
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“No candidate has been endorsed on a consensus basis. We reiterate that the need for a consensus would not be sacrificed on the altar of money, injustice and fairness. Kogi is too good to be left in the hands of those without ideas.”
Similarly, the APGA’s candidate said the candidates failed to agree on the WAEC certificate as the minimum educational requirement for the emergence of a consensus candidate from the Igala-speaking zone; hence there is no consensus candidate yet from the zone.
He said, “The state needs someone with competence and capacity. We would not sacrifice competence on the altar of mediocrity. We appeal to the Aduku committee to be aware of all the shenanigans. In a nutshell, let us produce our best.”
The YPP candidate, Omale, also dispelled claims that a consensus candidate for the governorship race from the Igala extraction has emerged.
