By Princess Simon (Bureau Chief North Central, in Minna)
The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate for the Saturday’s governorship election in Niger state, Hajiya Khadijat Abdullahi-Iya, has debunked rumours that she has withdrawn from the race, just as she also insists that the party is not in any merger plans with the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC).
Khadijat who is also the only female contestant out of the 17 candidates standing for political parties that would be testing their popularity and level of acceptability in Niger state, made this disclosure at the weekend.
Though a green horn, venturing into Nigerian politics for the first time, Khadijat who has been an active voice in Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) championing the cause for good governance, said she is confident that Nigerlites will support her aspirations.
“It is not true that I have withdrawn from the gubernatorial race, or that we have collapsed our structure into the All Progressive Congress (APC) by ten political parties as claimed by the party. In fact, as a matter of fact, I want to categorically tell you that APGA is not among the 10 political parties if there is anything like that”.
On the contrary, Khadijat said she decided to join the race to give voice to women in Niger state and Nigeria in general coming from a region and religion where women were hardly given the opportunity to come out and make public pronouncements on their gender status
Meanwhile, the APGA gubernatorial candidate has debunked social media report claiming that she and nine other political parties have collapsed their structures in support of the ruling APC. She said she has come too far to back down for whatsoever reasons.
While expressing disappointment over the false information and coming from another gubernatorial candidate who should have devoted his time to convincing Nigerlites on why he should be voted instead of trying to claim what never happened, Khadijat described those behind the report as ‘lacking in integrity and showing that they are not worthy to lead’.
In a related development, the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) Niger state, has also debunked claims of merger with the APC, describing the report as the imaginations of mischief makers desperate to claim another persons’ mandate.
A press statement by Dr. Ifeanyi Okeke, Chairman, PCC, Niger state, said “We observed with dismay the inclusion of Labour Party in the list of some 12 political parties purportedly supporting the candidature of Umaru Bago of the APC in the forthcoming gubernatorial and House of Assembly election, that the parties will give him their votes”.
In debunking the purported merger, he said, “Our PCC is not aware of any arrangement of such nature. We dissociate and distance ourselves from such phantom plans and we are not aware of any endorsement of the APC candidate”.
While calling on their supporters to ignore the ruling party’s claims and to remain steadfast ahead of Saturday’s election, the statement said, “Dr. Joshua Bawa remains the LP candidate and he is not in alliance with any political party, not even the APC”. NNL.
