Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja
The Audu/Faleke group, on Tuesday, said the results produced by it in last Saturday’s Kogi APC Congress held in all the 239 wards in the state were the most reliable and authentic.
While speaking with newsmen in Lokoja , spokesman of the group, Duro Meseko urged members of the All progressive Congress in the state to shun the results being bandied by the Ahovi Ibrahim- led factional group supported by governor Yahaya Bello saying it did not follow due process.
According to him, the Haddy Ametuo working committee in the state was the one recognized by the National body of the party but said he wondered why the governor was supposed to build the party in the state , was the one scattering it.
His words, “Our party’s constitution gives power to the State chairmen of the party. They are the ones to receive the materials for election because it is the State Working Committee of the Party that is supposed to appoint the local electoral officers that should monitor the congresses , and in this case the rightful person is the Hardy Ametuo led executive.
“He is the Kogi State APC chairman that the national Secretariat has been talking about.
The so called Election committee that came had been bought over but remember that all we have done in the ward congress is still going to be subject to appeal and it can still end up in the court but everyone knows that at the court Ametuo group will win because he is the authentic chairman for now.
“The Constitution does not recognize Governor to be the ones to recieve primary election materials but the State party chairmen of the party and set in motion the processes.
“It is the State Chairman that will write to INEC and give INEC accredited venues that they have approved for the Congresses. And that was what we did the Governor yahaya Bello didn’t do that.
“Ametuo has followed due process, they have written to INEC, given INEC the accredited venues and INEC supervised the congress by the Ametuo led group. If the Bello group did another Congress and some persons came from Abuja to talk about that it is wrong and it cannot stand the test of time.
“We have submitted out results. This is how it goes, once we finished the collation it is in triplicate one is detached to be given to the local electoral officers of INEC, the blue colour is given to the State INEC then the white colour is the one that goes to the committee and we have submitted to the committee.
“We would not worry about what anybody is saying in whatever committee, we all know Governor Bello, I am sure he would have bribed them.
“The national Secretariat of the party that sold forms to us, we paid N26 Million to purchase the forms. They wouldn’t have sold forms to us . Like in Imo State the Governor also is crying fowl because he could not get the forms it was given to a faction that is like our own in Kogi.
“So for them to have given us forms shows that they had realised their mistakes because after we threatened to boycott the Congress they realised that they were wrong as it is the State executive that should take the delivery of the forms and they gave us the forms.
“Whatever any other group has done is null and void because they did not follow due process, INEC has said they did not receive any correspondent from them” he added.
It seems gov yahaya bello has been overwhelmed by the political intrigues of the audu/faleke group.
Sorry for him in advance.