High Court Judgement: Kogi Assembly Speaker congratulates APC, Ododo

…Says APC’ll sweep poll clean in November

The Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Aliyu Umar Yusuf has congratulated the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the party’s candidate in the November 11 gubernatorial election, Alhaji Ododo Usman Ahmed over Wednesday’s High Court pronouncement which affirmed his candidature.

This is contained in a press statement signed by the Speaker’s Chief Press Secretary, Yabagi Mohammed, in which the lawmaker said the High Court Judgement which dismissed a case filed against Alhaji Ododo by the immediate past Senator for Kogi West Senatorial District, Smart Adeyemi, challenging his emergence in the April 14th 2023 primary election as apt.

The speaker said the party needs unity of purpose and direction and urged all stakeholders to join hands with the candidate to ensure sound victory for the party during the governorship election.

The Speaker noted in the statement that Governor Yahaya Bello has done a lot for the state over the seven and a half years of his leadership and enjoined citizens to give massive support to the party to ensure sustained dividends of democracy.

Rt. Hon Yusuf noted that the APC does not need what he described as ‘frivolous judicial challenges’ within its ranks at the moment, and assured that the party would ‘sweep it clean’ during the election irrespective of the seeming obstacles being raised against it by some individuals and groups.

The Speaker enjoined politicians not to overheat the polity, and that they should allow democratic governance thrive in the state, stressing that Kogi State cannot afford to fall to any of the opposition parties because the state is already in the mainstream of the country’s political landscape.

“As far as Kogi is concerned, we gave massive support to the President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu by voting overwhelmingly for the APC and we will do the same in November. We cannot allow the work we put in during the general election to go to waste by doing otherwise during the governorship poll.

“No genuine member of Kogi State APC would use any frivolous case to distract our candidate at this critical point. Anyone that genuinely has the interest of the party at heart must allow the reconciliation mechanism of the party to work in bringing everyone that has any grudges against our candidate under the same roof to discuss and come to agreement,” the speaker stressed.

Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo emerged APC governorship candidate with 78, 704 votes to beat six other contestants during April 2023 primaries in Lokoja the Kogi State capital.