By Ishaya Ibrahim
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday finally cleared a governorship aspirant, Babatunde Ayo Kunle Irukera, to contest the party’s Kogi State governorship primaries.
A statement by the national publicity secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu, said Irukera successfully met the conditions provided by the party’s guidelines for the nomination of candidates within the time granted to clarify his claims.
Irukera was one of the seven aspirants that were not cleared on Tuesday when the governor, Yahaya Bello, and eight others were cleared.
On Wednesday, a group of protesters on the platform of Kogi Mandate Group blocked entrance to the national secretariat of the APC in Abuja demanding explanation why their candidate was not cleared to contest the party primary.
The group alleged that the the party’s NWC deliberately omitted the name of Irukera from the list of cleared aspirants even after the Appeals Committee set up by the party had cleared him for the contest.
Irukera was disqualified by the Screening Committee headed by Senator Hope Uzodinma for invalid declaration of age, not attaching his academic credentials and supporting documents and for his nomination form not duly signed.
But appeals committee report claimed that they found no evidence to support the claim by the screening committee after listening to oral submission by Irukera and therefore cleared him for the primary.
But after its meeting on Tuesday night to consider the reports, the National Working Committee upheld the decision of the screening committee and disqualified Irukera from the contest, a decision that did not go down with his supporters.
However, the group accused the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party of deliberately shutting out Irukera to pave way for Governor Yahaya Bello to emerge unopposed at the primary billed to hold in Lokoja on Thursday.
Spokesperson for the group, Amos Alfa expressed surprise that the party went ahead to disqualify Irukera in spite of the fact that he was cleared by the screening committee of the party.
He said: “We want justice to be done. Irukera was cleared in 2015 by this same party and he contested at the primaries. The sitting governor is aware that only Irukera can unseat him. We have evidence that in the result from screening panel, it was written boldly that he was cleared. We want justice on this issue. The party should not be left in the wrong hands. Let APC do justice to ensure that Babatunde feature in the primaries otherwise what happened in Zamfara State would happen in Kogi State.”
It is not yet clear why the APC decided to have a change of heart and clear Irukera.
