Aspirants Step Down For PDP Candidate In Kogi Senatorial Rerun

THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for Kogi East in the February 20 senatorial rerun election, Attai Ali Aidoko, may be the only candidate in the election,as five candidates of other political parties in the election have stepped down for him.

By their action, the PDP candidate would be contesting unopposed as the Court of Appeal in its judgment that ordered the rerun barred the All progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate Abubakar Abdulraman from participating in the election.

The Kogi State Elections Petition Tribunal handling petitions in the state had ruled that Abubakar ceded his seat to Aidoko for the reason that he was not properly nominated at the primary.

The Petition Tribunal stated that Aidoko was the legitimate winner of the April 11 legislative election in the state. The Judgment made Abubakar to proceed to Court of Appeal, which ordered for a rerun, even as it barred APC and its candidate from the forthcoming election.

The five candidates who addressed a press conference in Lokoja yesterday resolved to embark on house-to-house campaign for the PDP candidate to sensitise their followers not to waste their votes but to vote for Aidoko.

The candidate of United Progressive Party (UPP), Voctor King Akubo, who spoke on behalf of the group: Forum of Contestants for Kogi East Senatorial District, said their decision was for the interest of Igala land.

Other candidates in the forum include the Labour Party’s Ibrajim Gabriel Itodo, Mega Progressive Peoples Party (MPPP)’s Enemaku Amos Arome, KOWA’s Okpanachi Nicholas and Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN)’s Abo Samuel.

“We want to categorically state here that the mandate we have given to the candidate of the PDP today was not paid for as it is not for sale as it was being rumoured,” Akubo said.