Senatorial candidates step down for Adeyemi

James Azania, Lokoja

 

BARELY 11 days to the Kogi State governorship election and the Kogi West Senatorial rerun, the coalition of Kogi West Senatorial candidates on Tuesday endorsed Governor Yahaya Bello and his running mate, Edward Onoja.

They also said that they have stepped down for Senator Smart Adeyemi in the Kogi West Senatorial rerun scheduled to hold on the same day as the governorship election.

The candidates, including Olabode Adeyemi African Democratic Congress (ADC), Princess Roseline Ibitoye (Accord Party), Chief Samuel Atteh (Progressive Peoples Alliance), Olasunkanmi Aina Olayinka (CAP), Noah John Abiodun (Peoples Party of Nigeria) and Olasunkanmi Aina (PT), at a joint press conference in Lokoja, said their decision to step down was informed by current political exigencies and the need to alter the direction of political reality of Kogi State since 1992, which had always produced successive governors from one ethnic group, and for five uninterrupted terms since the creation of the state.

They described the hold onto power by one section as inequitable, unjust, unfair and demanding the concern of all, thus the need to bury their aspirations.

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They said that the election of Governor Yahaya Bello had automatically reversed the one-ethnic group dominance of the governorship seat and established a process for equitable power sharing that was fostering unity, fairness and equity.

Speaking on their behalf, Olabode Adeyemi of the ADC said having weighed the factors that would inform voting on November 16, took a decision they considered would be the best for the state.

According to him: “As important stakeholders in the November 16 governorship and the (Kogi West) senatorial election, we have reviewed the obvious realities, appraised the political journey of the past and have resolved collectively to defer our ambitions till future election years and support the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the elections.”