REWIND: Smart Adeyemi once said he’d support any successor anointed by Yahaya Bello
On Friday, the All Progressives Congress (APC) held its primary election for the Kogi governorship election billed for November 11.
According to Patrick Obahiagbon, secretary of the primary election committee, Ahmed Ododo won the poll. He said Ododo scored 78,704 votes to beat six other contestants.
Salami Momodu got 1506 votes, Abubakar Yahaya-Ashemogu secured 1159, and Shaaibu Abubakar-Audu polled 763 votes.
Stephen Ocheni garnered 552 votes, Sanusi Ohiare had 424, and Smart Adeyemi got 311 votes.
Ododo is the former local government auditor-general in Kogi state. He is believed to be the preferred candidate of Yahaya Bello, governor of the state.
However, the conduct of the election has been faulted by majority of the contestants.
The loudest among them is Adeyemi, senator representing Kogi West, who said the APC primary was “a new phenomenon of electoral malpractices”.
Speaking on Saturday, the senator said the results had been prepared before the election was held. He accused the governor of imposing his anointed candidate on the party while strong-arming other contenders to withdraw their pursuit of the APC governorship ticket in the state.
Also in a chat with Arise TV on Monday, Adeyemi described the primary as a ridicule of the Nigerian constitution and promised to pursue the case to the supreme court.
“Announcements were made and I was taken aback. This is the worst malpractice; the worst form of rigging and unprecedented in the history of Nigeria,” he said.
“If there was an election and it was rigged, we will know it was rigged, but where there was no election at all, and for someone to have the audacity to write the result and went ahead to announce it.
“The primary election in Kogi was just allocation of votes.”
‘I’LL SUPPORT WHATEVER DECISION YAHAYA BELLO MAKES — GOOD OR BAD’
FLASHBACK VIDEO: I’ll support anyone Yahaya Bello anoints to succeed him, says @SenSmartAdeyemi pic.twitter.com/0fbs0doZbq
— TheCable (@thecableng) April 16, 2023
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The protest by Adeyemi runs contrary to what the senator promised three years ago when he was still on good terms with the Kogi governor.
In April 2020, while addressing a crowd at the flag-off of food distribution to his constituents during the height of COVID-19, Adeyemi broached the topic of the successor to Yahaya Bello.
The senator said he would support whoever the governor anoints as his successor, even if the individual is “my worst political enemy”.
He promised to never have issues with Bello and would support any decision made by the latter “whether good or bad”.
“Only a foolish man will ever think I will have issues with Yahaya Bello. I will not have any issues with him, it will not happen. Because when people did not believe in me, he did. So, why would I fight him? I can defend him to any level. I will not betray him. Whatever the decision of Yahaya Bello — whether good or bad — I will stand by it,” Adeyemi said.
“I heard some people have been talking. Whenever the governor is leaving office, if he likes, let him bring my worst political enemies as successor, I will support him. I am not in a hurry for any positions.
“Whomever Bello brings, we’ll support him. I am a progressive-minded person, I am a man of faith. I am here by the grace of God using Yahaya Bello and you people.
“There is no interest to defend in Kogi because Governor Bello is a just and fair person. So there is nothing to fight with him. He is our neighbour and in-law, and God mandates us to love our neighbours as yourself.”
Three years later, Adeyemi finds himself at the forefront of the protest against the controversial election of Bello’s anointed successor.
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