STAKEHOLDERS in the North-Central zone under the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), on Saturday, said the presidential ambition of the Kogi State governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, is non-negotiable, even if the zone produces the party’s national chairman in the forthcoming convention.
The stakeholders insisted that “Yahaya Bello will contest and we will ensure victory for him by God’s grace,” even if the party’s chairmanship was zoned to Okene Local Government Area of the state.
The stakeholders said this in reaction to a statement purportedly issued by a group, under the aegis of “Stakeholders in Nasarawa State Council of the All Progressives Congress, APC,” appealing to Governor Bello to sacrifice his presidential ambition for the rumoured national chairmanship position awaiting the zone.
A statement signed and issued by the Director-General, North Central Coalition for Leadership, Williams Oluwatoyin, said the purported appeal by the group from Nasarawa for Bello to relinquish his ambition, “stands logic on its head and also belittles the zone.”
They made this position known on a day Governor Bello officially presented Staff of Office to newly approved, graded and upgraded traditional rulers in Kogi State, at the Muhammadu Buhari Civic Centre, in Lokoja. According to them, Bello holds the overwhelming mandate of the North Central and Nigerians as a whole to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, insisting that that “a Bello presidency can’t be sacrificed on the altar of ‘cash and carry politics,” even as they wondered what kind of zone would be satisfied more with producing a chairman of the party than producing president of a country.
The statement read, “Our attention has been drawn to a statement purportedly issued by a faceless group of ‘Stakeholders in Nasarawa State Council of the All Progressives Congress, APC,’ ‘appealing to Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State to sacrifice his presidential ambition, to pave way for the North Central to produce the national chairman of the party.’
“The said statement reportedly made by the Chairman of the Council, Kassim Muhammed-Kassim in Yola, claimed that the group endorsed Senator Abdullahi Adamu for the position of National Chairman in the forthcoming party’s Convention.
“Without mincing words, we are the authentic APC Stakeholders in the North Central and there is no other apart from us. We wonder what kind of zone would be satisfied more with producing a Chairman than producing a President.
“We, the authentic Stakeholders in APC North Central want to state categorically that we are in full support of Yahaya Bello’s Presidential ambition and we regard the purported appeal for him to back out from the race as standing logic on its head.
“By saying this, we do not by any means, infer that anybody should not vie for the chairmanship position in the North Central. What has come to stay, through popular demand, is that Yahaya Bello will contest presidency notwithstanding where the party’s chairmanship position is zoned to. Even if the party’s chairmanship is zoned to Okene Local Government, Yahaya Bello will contest and we will ensure victory for him by God’s grace.”
APC stakeholders in the North- Central Zone said it was obvious that these unknown individuals who branded themselves as stakeholders were singing the tune of their pay masters, but quickly pointed out that doing this at the expense of the wish and yearnings of the people was undemocratic and belittling of the North Central, to say the least.
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