APC Presidential Primary Was Compromised, Says Yahaya Bello

The Media and Pub­licity Directorate of Yahaya Bello Presiden­tial Campaign Organ­isation has said that the process of the APC presidential primary election was largely peaceful but highly compromised.

The director of the campaign organisation, Yemi Kolapo, in a state­ment, pointed out that Bello remains the hero of the oppressed.

The campaign or­ganisation said: “The All Progressives Con­gress’ presidential pri­mary elections have come and gone. The process was largely peaceful but highly compromised. This is, how­ever, not new in a country where democracy is defined as the government of the op­pressors by the oppressors and for the oppressors.

“It is sad to note that those who should know and who many progressives had thought of as leaders with integrity are the ones work­ing against the people they were (s)elected to represent for egocentric reasons.

“In this process, one lead­er stands out, according to the majority of Nigerians. And that leader is one that has proven to the downtrod­den and those regarded as ‘Nigerians without sur­names,’ that regardless of age long intimidation by the elite, the best of our people can stand tall without com­promising the values that we should have been known for as a nation.

“That leader, I say with all sense of fairness, is Gover­nor Yahaya Adoza Bello of Kogi State. He is the hero of this process and has made his point loud and clear to the admiration of even his worst enemies.”

The campaign organi­sation also pointed out the Northern governors’ gang-up against the Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello.

“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.

“A mode of primaries whereby delegates who have largely been pocketed by their paymasters and who defer to the highest bidder are made to choose flag­bearers of a political party is as warped as the process itself,” the group said.

The campaign organisa­tion explained how Bello was shortchanged at the pri­mary, adding, “It is obvious that in a bid to prove that he is not one of them, enemies of this project, Nigeria, went beyond speaking with delegates and oiling their palms to ensure that votes that did not represent Yaha­ya Bello’s popularity were counted against his name. But they have unwittingly made him the hero of the moment.

“We do not have to talk much but to pray that God Himself would deliver Nigerians from the hands of enemies of democracy. Poverty is a tool they have used for long to keep Ni­gerians poor. At the right time, however, this jinx must break!

“We only wish that this obvious crack in the ceiling would not eventually make the ceiling cave in.”