According to the rules for the primary election, which took place on Friday, Ahmed Ododo’s candidature as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the Kogi State governorship race, slated for November 11, has been approved by a special congress of the party.
The extraordinary congress was conducted on Saturday at the Muhammadu Buhari Civic Center in Lokoja, the capital of Kogi State, and was presided over by the chairman of the Kogi APC Primary Election Committee, Zamfara State Governor Bello Matawalle.
This comes after Ododo, a former auditor general for local governments, emerged as the APC’s candidate for governor during the party’s direct primary elections, which were held in all 239 of the state’s wards.
“After the carefully conducted primaries, devoid of rancour and with no violence recorded anywhere in the state, and having scored 78,704 votes, Alhaji Usman Ododo has been returned as the governorship candidate that will fly the party’s flag in the November 11 Governorship Election in the state,” the secretary to the committee, who represented the governor of Zamfara, said in announcing the results for ratification.
The newly elected candidate pledged in his acceptance speech to build on the security blueprint established by the current governor, Yahaya Bello, as well as many other game-changing achievements of the current administration.
The Kogi State Governor, who also spoke at the event, expressed his confidence that Ododo would not let Kogites down, saying the attendance at the Congress was evidence of his popularity throughout the entire state, regardless of ethnic or religious prejudice.
“Today’s event demonstrates that Kogi State is devoid of opposition. We are a large family, and we have achieved every state victory possible. We won the presidential election, three of the nine House of Representatives seats that were up for grabs, three senatorial seats, and 23 of the 25 state assembly seats. By every definition, this is a passing grade,” Bello said.
Here is a video showing the ratification of the Ododo:
