APC primary highly compromised — but Yahaya Bello fought well, says campaign group

The Yahaya Bello presidential campaign organisation says the just-concluded All Progressives Congress (APC) primary was “largely peaceful but highly compromised”.

On Wednesday, Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos, won the APC primary after he polled 1,271 votes to defeat 13 other presidential hopefuls.

Rotimi Amaechi, former minister of transportation, came second with 316 votes, while Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo got 235 votes.

Senate President Ahmad Lawan polled 152 votes while Bello, governor of Kogi, got 47 votes.

Speaking on the outcome of the election, Yemi Kolapo, spokesperson of the Kogi governor’s campaign organisation, said Bello stood out in the primary “regardless of agelong intimidation by the elite”.

“The All Progressives Congress’ presidential primary elections have come and gone. The process was largely peaceful but highly compromised,” the statement reads.

“This is however not new in a country where democracy is defined as the government of the oppressors by the oppressors and for the oppressors.

“It is sad to note that those who should know and who many progressives had thought of as leaders with integrity are the ones working against the people they were (s)elected to represent for egocentric reasons.

“In this process, one leader stands out, according to the majority of Nigerians. And that leader is one that has proven to the downtrodden and those regarded as “Nigerians without surnames”, that regardless of agelong intimidation by the elite, the best of our people can stand tall without compromising the values that we should have been known for as a nation.

“That leader, I say with all sense of fairness, is Governor Yahaya Adoza Bello of Kogi State. He is the hero of this process and has made his point loud and clear to the admiration of even his worst enemies.

“There was a clear, desperate gang-up by northern governors and the leaders of a party against one person, and that person never for once disappointed his teeming supporters but rather fought to the very end, not minding the crooked process, then he should be celebrated by the constituency he represents – the youth.”

In the build-up to the primary, 13 northern APC governors asked the party to zone the presidential ticket to the south — a decision that was rejected by the Kogi governor.