Senator Mohammed Ohiare of the All Progressives Congress representing Kogi Central has revealed that he would have prevented the criticisms that followed the emergence of Prince Abubakar Audu as the party’s gubernatorial candidate if the aspirants from Kogi central had listened to him.
As diverse interests in Kogi state continue to trade blames over the governorship primaries, Ohiare noted that those blackmailing him that he sneakily worked for Prince Audu were no ignorant.
Wondering how some politicians would stop at nothing in order to destroy peoples’ political career that was laboriously acquired over the years describing it as disheartening
“It is quite unfortunate that in politics, the greatest weapon to use against your opponent is blackmail; I occupy the highest political office in the Central zone, which of course, I will forever be grateful to my people, hence, I could not have done that,” he said
According to Daily Post, Ohiare opined that he would have contested for the governorship seat as part of the Ebira agenda but he had to retreat to enable him midwife the agenda to a better conclusion.
He noted that they were able to convince aspirants from the Western Senatorial district to step down for him while his kinsmen refused all entreaties, adding that the “climate of things” made him to retreat.
“On this very gubernatorial bid, I had intention to contest, but after considering the climate of things, I withdrew to midwife the agenda of Ebira man becoming the candidate or at most, an Okun person, and God knows that was exactly what I worked for,” he stated.
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Ohiare also added that he had to close ties with Senator Ohize, whom he had been at loggerheads with for quite some time. He stressed that they (him and Senator Ohize) analysed all the contestants in conjunction with other stakeholders before arriving at Alhaji Abubakar Sanusi as the preferred person to fly the flag.
“Back home, I have decided to bury the hatchet with Senator Ohize whom I have been at loggerheads with; I invited him into the project to jointly choose a common candidate and of course when we analysed characters, we centred our interest on Sanusi,” he disclosed.
Describing Sanusi as a notable philanthropist whose pedigree transcends others in terms of commitment to the cause of Ebira land. Ohiare said Sanusi’s candidature was already accepted by delegates from Western zone where most of the votes would come from.
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However, in reaction to the loss at the primaries, highly political Ebira people in a long convoy of cars and motorcycles from the Lokoja new stadium to the centre of the town, rained curses and insults on the duo of Ohiare and Alhaji Abubakar Sanusi Gamji, who they alleged were used by former Governor, Abubakar Audu, to break the block votes that should have accrued to their most promising candidate of clinching the APC ticket, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
A chieftain of the APC, however, also believe that the Gamji was brought by Ohiara two weeks to the primaries not to win but to destabilise the central zone and provide an easy rise for Audu.
He also alleged that Gamji remains a stalwart of the Peoples Democratic Party as he has not officially decamped from the party.
“Ohiare and Gamji successfully played the Audu game. Ohiare, in connivance with Audu, brought in Gamji, a PDP member to cause confusion in the central zone and deny the zone the APC ticket.
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“Everybody knew that Yahaya Bello was the only threat Audu had and they needed to break his growing influence and make things easy for the former governor,” the chieftain said.
Another source disclosed more, saying: “Senator Ohiare worked for Audu and was only pretending to be backing Abubakar Sanusi Gamji. It was pure politics of deceit he played there. I only pity Gamji because he was like a pawn in a game of chess. The intention of the Ohiare group was never about him but Audu.”
According to the source, the Ohiare camp and by extension, Senator Ohize are scared of the emergence of younger generation of leaders with an independent mindset because they might retire them politically.
Some stakeholders calling for a new dimension of change from past political lords believe that the candidacy of Audu might impede efforts to unseat the ruling party. They opined that PDP might win the next elections if the ruling party can present a sell-able candidate.
The post Read What Senator Ohiare Says About Kogi APC Primaries appeared first on Nigeria News today & Breaking news | Read on NAIJ.COM.
Read What Senator Ohiare Says About Kogi APC Primaries
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