Kogi APC Primary: How committee disqualified 75% of aspirants to pick Yahaya, 3 others

Out of the 16 aspirants the APC sold applications worth N360m to for the Aug 29 guber primary in Kogi, only four made the cut as the Sen. Hope Uzodimma committee screened the aspirants in Lokoja, Friday.

The losers are now tearing out the hair.

The biggest of them are the Audus—three members of the family of the late Gov. Abubakar Audu.

Yahaya, Mona, Mohammed, siblings, were disqualified as gatecrashers and invalid nominees.

The fantastic four who scaled the hurdle are Governor Yahya Bello, Rep Hassan Bello, Ekele Aisha Blessing, and  Abubakar Bashir.

Other losers are Danlami Mohammed, Babatunde Irukera, Rukkaya Ibrahim, Sani Lulu Abdulahi, Gen. Patrick Akpa, Prof Mohammed Onaili, Yakubu Mohammed and Rear Admiral Usman Jibril (retd).

Irukera, on behalf of the disgruntled aspirants, said the process was deliberately tipped to favour Bello and others.

“The August 29 primary is already compromised, I find it difficult not to come to that conclusion. Even if the clearance is done tomorrow, the momentum is gone,” he told journalists on Monday.

As expected, the APC has appealed for calm.

“There are clear procedures for the conduct of screening of aspirants in our party’s constitution and the Electoral Act. Screening itself is not the final stage in the qualification process,” said  APC National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu.