APC Sweeps 27 Assembly Seats In Kogi As PDP Rejects Results

 

From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja

With the conclusion of the Supplementary State House of Assembly elections in Kogi state last Saturday, the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) has won all the 25 seats.

The landslide victory is the first in the state’s political history since the inception of democratic process where leading opposition is defeated in that manner.

APC had on March 9, during the gubernatorial and State Assembly elections swept all the major seats in the State assembly leaving only Lokoja I, Omala and Igalamela/Odolu constituencies where elections were initially declared inconclusive .

After the conduct of the election and collation of results in the affected units on Saturday, the APC has officially won in all the State constituencies, leaving no room for any opposition party in the State Assembly.

In Kogi East, the APC, aside winning the senatorial and three House of Representatives seats, the party also won the eleven State Constituencies including Ankpa I & II, Bassa, Dekina I & II (Biraidu), Ibaji, Idah, Iagalamela-Odolu, Ofu, Omala and Olamaboro.
Such feat has never been recorded in Kogi East Senatorial district in the history of the State.

Also in Kogi Central Senatorial District, the party also won the senate as well as all its House of Representatives seats.
In same vain, the party clinched Assembly seats in Okene I & II, Adavi, Ajaokuta, Okehi and Ogori-Magongo constituencies.

Similar event happened in Kogi West as the party also won in all Its state Constituencies including Kabba-Bunu, Ijumu, Yagba-East, Yagba-West, Mopamuro, Lokoja II and Kogi (Kotonkarfe) and also Lokoja I Constituency.

Speaking on the party’s successful outing in the polls in the state, Chief Of Staff to the Governor of Kogi state who also doubled as the Director-General, APC Campaign Council in the state, Hon. Edward Onoja listed seven key factors responsible for the party’s unprecedented success in the state.
One of the factors according to Onoja was the non-imposition of candidates by the party.

Another critical factor was the quick resolution of pockets of disputes that came up after the primaries were conducted.

Effective communication between the leadership of the party from top to the bottom was also critical to the party’s success in the last elections.
Onoja said, the party executives were made up of competent party faithful with proven integrity.

The last and most important reason that earned the APC a landslide victory in Kogi according to the DG, Campaign Council was effective leadership that the state government under governor Yahaya Bello is providing for the people.

The state party chairman Hon Abdullahi Bello said the overwhelming victory of the APC at the polls were clear indications that the party was more United, entrenched and more positioned for any electoral contest in the stathe.
On his part, the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the governor, Mohammed Onogwu, asserted: “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”.

Meanwhile, the Deputy State Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP), the leading opposition party in the state, Hon. Ranti Abenemi had at a press conference recently rejected the victory of the ruling APC, saying that the acclaimed landslide victory would be challenged in Court at the appropriate time.

Abenemi described all the just concluded elections in Kogi state ranging from presidential, national and state house of assemblies polls as a charade, affirming that the whole exercise was characterized with violence, crazy gun shots, ballot box snatching, falsification of elections results and all manners of irregularities which he alleged were perpetrated by APC.

He maintained that the APC acclaimed landslide victory is not justifiable and therefore cannot stand, describing the development as null and void.