Kogi: Abejide emerges ADC governorship candidate

By Richard Elesho

The member representing Yagba Federal Constituency in Kogi, Leke Abejide, has promised to upscale a special education intervention programmes round the state if he is elected governor in November.

He said this in an acceptance speech on Saturday following his emergence as governorship candidate of his party, the African Democratic Congress, ADC for the election.

The ADC primary in which Abejide was a lone aspirant held peacefully across the 239 wards of the 21 local government areas of the state and had its Collation center at the Idri Nana hotel, Lokoja

The direct primary election was supervised by INEC officials from the state and the national headquarters of the commission with the presence of security agents .

One Mrs Magdalene Aku represented the INEC Chairman while Sadiq Zakaye and one other represented the INEC state office.

While announcing the results, National Collation Officer of ADC, Dr Babalola Ajadi, said out of the 9,584 total votes, Leke Abejide had 9,456 votes while 128 votes were recorded as invalid.

Dr Ajadi said “having scored the highest valid votes and being the only contestant in the primary, Leke Abejide is declared winner of the primary and ADC candidate in the Nov 11 governorship election.”

Speaking after his emergence, Abejide promised to prioritize education, workers welfare, security and infrastructural development if elected Governor in November.

He promised to make his detailed manifesto available to all Kogi electorate in the next few weeks.

He explained that one of the drivers of insecurities in the state is the continued haphazard payment of salaries to civil servants.

He promised to rectify the problem if elected governor.

“Non payment and half payment of salary will be a thing of the past in Kogi, under my watch,” he assured.

In a related development, elder-statesman Barrister Julius Ekukpo picked the flag of Action Democratic Party, ADP and Usman Ododo that of All Progressives Congress, APC in separate primary elections conducted Friday.

Other parties are expected to pick their candidates, in a matter of days

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