Group asks Wada, 2 others to withdraw from Kogi guber race

A group has called on former governor of Kogi state, retired Capt Idris Wada and his brother, Musa, to withdraw from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primaries and ultimately the November 16 contest.

The group, known as Concerned Kogi Professionals, also asked Abubakar Ibrahim, who is the son of former Governor Ibrahim Idris, not to participate in the PDP primaries scheduled for September 3.

The group insisted the trio should withdraw because Kogi state is neither a family estate nor a private business for particular families.

Stating reasons for the call on the three aspirants to withdraw from the race, the coordinator of the group, Dr Tope Atte, cited extended family ties binding the three aspirants together.

This, according to Atteh, could destroy the existing unity in the state chapter should any of the three aspirants emerge winner in the primaries.

The group took the position after members met the PDP National Secretary Senator Umar Tsauri in his office at the party’s Abuja secretariat, asking the party to disqualify the three aspirants.

In a statement issued after meeting with Tsauri, the group said unless the three aspirants from the same extended family are forced out of the race, the party was doomed to be defeated by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in event that any of them picks the ticket.

The statement said: “There is palpable fear across the leadership and rank and file of our party that if this danger is not confronted and contained before we go into primaries, it may become intractable thereafter and could ignite series of actions and reactions that could lead to the failure of our party at the polls.”

The statement also describe the three aspirants as “extremely mutually antagonistic contestants” from the same extended family, Atteh lamented that the party’s stakeholders and elders have already been fractionalised along three parallel lines.

The group further stated that anyone of the three who wins the primary election would be sabotaged by stakeholders and supporters of the other two contenders.

Atteh said Idris Wada and Musa Wada are blood brothers with the latter married to one of the daughters of ex-governor Ibrahim Idris. The ex-governor’s biological son, Abubakar, is also in the race.

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