Kogi 2023: Mammoth crowd as APC Special Congress ratifies Ododo as governorship candidate

The candidature of Ahmed Usman Ododo as the flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress in the Kogi State governorship election, scheduled for November 11, has been ratified by a special Congress of the party, as stipulated in the guidelines for the primary election, which held on Friday. 

The special congress, presided over by the Chairman of the Kogi APC Primary Election Committee, Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State, was held on Saturday at the Muhammadu Buhari Civic Centre, in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital. 

The crowd at the centre was unprecedented as APC members vowed to mobilise for Ododo during the November election and ensure he succeeds Governor Yahaya Bello.

The  congress follows the emergence of Ododo, a former Auditor-General for Local Governments, as the APC candidate at the party's governorship direct primaries held across all the 239 wards of the state. 

Announcing the results for ratification, the Secretary to the committee, who represented the Zamfara Governor, Patrick Obahiagbon, said, "After the carefully conducted primaries, devoid of rancour and with no violence recorded anywhere in the state, and having scored 78,704 votes, Alhaji Usman Ododo has been returned as the governorship candidate that will fly the party's flag in the November 11 Governorship Election in the state." 

In his acceptance speech, the newly elected candidate promised to continue to improve on the security template laid down by the incumbent Governor Yahaya Bello, among many other life-changing legacies of the current administration. 

The Kogi State Governor, who also spoke at the event, said that he was sure that Ododo would not disappoint Kogites, adding that the crowd at the Congress was a pointer to his acceptability across the length and breadth of the state, without consideration for ethnic or religious bias. 

"Today's event shows that there is no opposition in Kogi State. We are one big family; we have won everything winable in the state. We won presidential election, we won the available three senatorial seats; six out of nine House of  Representatives seats; and 23 out of 25 state assembly seats. This is a pass mark by any standard," Bello noted.