The Ustaz Abubakar Zakari Ola Kogi West Senatorial Campaign Organisation has urged the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to officially declare Ustaz Abubakar Zakari Ola as the winner of the party’s Kogi West Senatorial Primary Election.
The campaign made the demand in a statement issued on Thursday in Lokoja, where it also congratulated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his emergence at the APC Presidential Primary Election.
According to the organisation, Tinubu’s victory reflects the confidence and trust party members across the country have in his leadership.
The group further praised APC National Chairman, Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, alongside members of the NWC, for what it described as a transparent and peaceful conduct of the presidential primary process.
Speaking on the Kogi West senatorial contest, the campaign insisted that Ustaz Ola polled the highest number of authentic and verifiable votes cast by delegates during the exercise.
It questioned the figures allegedly being attributed to Senator Sunday Karimi and Hon. Samuel Aro, noting that the numbers circulating in some quarters were conflicting and unreliable, especially as Aro had reportedly withdrawn from the race earlier.
The organisation maintained that the support recorded for Ustaz Ola represented the desire for fairness and equity in Kogi West, stressing that Lokoja/Kogi Federal Constituency had been denied the senatorial seat for about two decades.
It cited the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as an example of political fairness, noting that the opposition party had zoned its Kogi West Senatorial ticket to Lokoja/Kogi Federal Constituency.
The campaign also alleged that some political actors held private meetings where “contradictory figures” were allegedly assigned to preferred aspirants, a development it claimed disenfranchised many APC members across several wards.
According to the statement, the APC cannot promote unity and internal democracy through what it described as exclusion and fabricated election outcomes.
The group therefore called on the APC National Working Committee to protect the integrity of the primary election process by recognising what it described as the genuine outcome of the exercise and declaring Ustaz Ola as the party’s candidate for Kogi West Senatorial District.
The organisation also advised former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, to stay away from Kogi West political affairs, arguing that Kogi Central was already contending with unresolved issues surrounding its own senatorial primary election.
The statement was signed by the Kogi West Senatorial Campaign Organisation.
As of the time of filing this report, the APC National Working Committee, Senator Sunday Karimi and Hon. Samuel Aro had yet to react to the allegations.
