The just-concluded national convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) which produced former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu as the party’s flag-bearer for the 2023 presidential election was allegedly compromised.
Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello alleged this through his Presidential Campaign Organisation in a statement released hours after the declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the APC presidential primaries yesterday.
It was reported that Governor Bello garnered only 47 votes at the end of the APC primary election in Abuja on Wednesday. He came fifth behind Senate President Ahmed Lawan who polled a total of 152 votes.
Tinubu, however, swept the polls with massive 1,271 votes to emerge as the party’s candidate.
Reacting to the emergence of Sen. Tinubu as the candidate of the APC, the Kogi State Governor’s campaign team argued that Yahaya Bello remains the hero of the oppressed.
In the statement issued by the group’s Director, Media and Publicity, Yemi Kolapo, he said the process through which Tinubu emerged as the party’s presidential candidate was highly compromised and crooked.
The statement reads partly: “The All Progressives Congress’ presidential primary elections have come and gone. The process was largely peaceful but highly compromised.
“In this process, one leader stands out, according to the majority of Nigerians.
That leader, I say with all sense of fairness, is Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State. He’s the hero of this process and has made his point loud and clear to the admiration of even his worst enemies.
If there was a clear, desperate gang-up by northern governors and the leaders of a party against one person, and that person never for once disappointed his teeming supporters but rather fought to the very end, not minding the crooked process, then he should be celebrated by the constituency he represents – the youth.”
