The party said the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Murtala Ajaka, was massively rejected by the electorate in Kogi Central and Kogi West senatorial districts during the election.
It also called for the arrest and prosecution of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election, Senator Dino Melaye, for alleged cyber crime.
Kingsley Fanwo, the APC Director of Media and Publicity/Spokesperson for the Kogi State Governorship Campaign Council, said these at a “Thank You Press Conference”, in Lokoja, on Tuesday.
APC candidate in the election, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo, was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), having won the election with wide margin.
The ruling party in the state attributed its success in the just-concluded governorship election to the collective determination of the people of the state.
It stated that the determination of the people and voters to shun ethnicity for the overall development of the state, resulted in victory for the candidate of the party, Ododo.
The party commended its members in Kogi East, where it alleged that opposition parties deployed thugs to deprive members of their franchise.
Fanwo added that every vote the APC secured in Kogi East “represents hundreds of voters who were harassed, injured and even had their houses burnt for their political beliefs.”
He said the resounding victory of the APC had strengthened the social contract between the party and the people of Kogi State.
“It has also upscaled the onus of responsibility on us to continue to provide first class schools, health institutions, road infrastructure and many others that the current administration in the state has been doing over the past seven years and nine months,” he stated.
Fanwo alleged that a member of the party was gunned down in Anyigba for standing his ground to choose the Kogi Agenda over what he described as “sectional and divisive agenda of a candidate who had no interest of the state at heart with the evil narrative of ballot box snatching without providing proof.”
The party also alleged that thugs loyal to SDP sealed off the homes of many APC chieftains, stopping them from exercising their franchise during the election.
“This is a clear crime against democracy. Our agents were attacked and their tags seized and many of them were barred from accessing collation centres.
“Those who waged terrorism on our democracy out of desperation to make the impossible possible are today moving from one TV station to another to cry foul and create a contrary impression when unbiased observers from far and wide have described the election as the freest and most peaceful since the creation of Kogi State.
“This is the height of desperation to distract our common attention from the heist they committed,” the APC Director of Media and Publicity/Spokesperson said.
He said it was laughable that a candidate who claimed to have won only in his zone was crying foul and calling for the cancellation of the results of the areas where he was massively rejected.
“It is akin to a poor student who scored 20 per cent in a test to call for the cancellation of the 80 per cent he missed to make him score 100 per cent. It is ludicrous, pedestrian, senseless and a dubious attempt to deactivate justice and fairness.
“In the last 48 hours, the social media has been awash with mutilated and manipulated result sheets in favour of the SDP where the original results were rewritten by those who are now coming to equity with unclean hands.
“Their ethnocentric Senior Advocate of Nigeria is already writing essays to convince them to hire him for tribunal cases.
“Their immediate past experience where the Supreme Court questioned his knowledge of law will be child’s play as we have enough evidence to prove that the ethnic-centered candidate of the SDP actually didn’t score as much as was recorded for him at gun point.
“Our candidate and now the Governor-elect, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo, won election across the three senatorial districts while the ethnic agenda candidate claimed to have won in his own senatorial district alone. He didn’t win any local government area in the West or Central.
“Ododo won all the local government areas in two of the three senatorial districts and went ahead to win one Local government area in the East Senatorial District.
“He would have won more in Kogi East but for the daylight robbery of the SDP who dangerously attacked members of the APC in the East, leading to the death of one person while many were injured,” he said.
APC thanked the people of Kogi Central for turning out in their thousands to concretise the dominance of the party in Kogi State.
It noted that “the massive turnout is no surprise as we witnessed a mammoth turnout during our Kogi Central rally. The numbers that came out to vote showed the rally crowd wasn’t a ruse.”
The party also commended the people of Kogi West Senatorial District, saying the zone delivered six of the seven local government areas in the District to the party, despite the fact that three parties fielded candidates from the zone.
“Your turnout and massive support for the APC showed your faith in a united and prosperous state where leaders are elected based on competence, rather than ethnic bigotry.
“We thank Mr President for creating a level playing ground for all the candidates. We also thank the leadership of the party and other APC governors and leaders for rallying behind us to retain one of the most important states in Nigeria in the progressive fold.
“The Governor-elect, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo, will not disappoint you all. Governor Yahaya Bello has made it easy for the APC to continue to win elections in Kogi with his heroics in all the sectors of the economy,” the party said.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State has called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the governorship election, Senator Dino Melaye, for alleged cyber crime.
The party alleged that Melaye had confessed to hacking INEC’s back-end server on national television and also described his allegations as baseless and rantings of ‘a rejected political jobber’.
The Kogi APC Governorship Campaign Council said, for Melaye who was defeated at the polls, to have claimed on a national television that he had access to the back-end server of the INEC was “like walking into the prison yard and demanding to be locked up.”
Director, Media and Publicity/Spokesman of the APC Campaign Council, Kingsley Fanwo, said this during the “Thank You Press Conference”, adding that security agencies has no tedious job to do “on a suspect who confesses to a crime.
“Dino Melaye has openly confessed that he hacked into the back-end of the Independent National Electoral Commission. He should be arrested and prosecuted for cyber crime.”
Fanwo lambasted the former federal lawmaker for saying the INEC Chairman’s children should be ashamed of him, saying this was uncalled for, unethical and immoral.
“Are Dino Melaye’s children proud of his shameless physical combats on the floor of the National Assembly? Are his children proud of the fact that their mother levelled allegations of physical injuries against their father? Are Dino’s children proud of him?
“Dino Melaye was never in the race for the governorship election. The perennial contestant was in it for business and we do not see his allegations as anything more than the ranting of a thoroughly rejected political jobber.
“We can’t beat a child and expect him not to cry. But we will be magnanimous in victory. Someone who claimed to have boycotted an election is here complaining about the conduct. He was not even at his polling unit to vote. How he got over 40,000 votes should be probed.”
The party called on its members to celebrate with moderation, noting that “We are one people and we must remain united as a people. The results of the election has shown that it is our party alone that believes in the unity of our dear state.
“We won the election and also the battle against those who wanted to drag our state to the dark ages of ethnic division. Kogites, this victory is yours and it will herald fresh air of consolidation and continuity.”
