With just three months to go before the 2015 governorship elections in Kogi state, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has named Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, as the chairman of a 7-man committee that will oversee the conduct of the primary election.
The party primary comes up on August 29 and the party will be hoping to pick a formidable candidate out of the 17 aspirants, who will defeat the PDP standard bearer. The PDP does not have a candidate yet, even though the incumbent, Idris Wada, is seen as the favourite to get the party’s ticket to enable him stand election for a second term.
The El-Rufai committee has Senator Magnus Abbe as secretary, while Alhaji Ibrahim Sarki, Mrs. Omorge Osifor, ?
Mr. Mohammad Wali, Mr. Lanre Asiwaju and Mr. Greg Egwu are members.
Inaugurating the committee yesterday at the party national secretariat in Abuja, the APC deputy national chairman (North), Senator Lawan Shu’aibu, said that the members of the committee were carefully chosen by the party to do the job given their credibility.
For his part, APC national organising secretary, Senator Osita Izunaso, charged the committee members to take the assignment seriously, adding that all state executives of the party in Kogi are delegates and will vote in the primaries.
“You should hold a stakeholders meeting first and introduce yourselves as those who are called for this assignment. The party also request that you should reach out to security agencies in Kogi State upon arrival, the SSS, the Police and other security agencies, so that they won’t say they were not informed,” Izunaso said.
According to him, the chairman of the committee will be the returning officer for the primaries, saying that once the exercise starts, it must not be stopped half way.
“Once you start the accreditation, you cannot postpone, once you commence, you must complete and the winners will be announced on the spot, is not something you will go and compile and come back, it is not allowed.
“The aspirant with the highest number of votes shall be declared the winner.
“I want you to bear in mind, there is nothing like endorsement, maybe somebody will say he has been endorsed, there is nothing like that whatsoever, it is the people there that will choose” he added.
