BY OUR CORRESPONDENT
Lokoja
Ahead of the Kogi State gubernatorial election, Rev. Emmanuel Olorunmagba, the National Financial Secretary of National Rescue Movement (NRM), has disclosed that his party did not endorse the candidate of All Progressive Congress.
Olorunmagba while reacting to Mallam Bala Abdulgafar Dirisu, whom he referred to as “the mere governorship ticket placeholder, who erroneously assume that he has acquired the status of a Kogi State gubernatorial candidate for National Rescue Movement (NRM).”
“Idrisu Bala of National Rescue Movement (NRM) who on Saturday July 29, 2023 held a press conference at the NUJ Secretariat in Lokoja Kogi State with some people he claimed to be from five different political parties, announcing that they have adopted the APC’s gubernatorial candidate, Usman Ododo on behalf of their party. We want to debunk that, NRM was not part of any so called endorsement for Ododo as nether the national nor state ever discussed such endorsement”.
“I will not descend with him into the mud, but I will address the lies and the deceptive manipulations”.
“The pertinent questions begging for answer remain, is Bala Idrisu now the spokesman of NRM? Or did Mr. Sola Afuye who is the substantive National Publicity Secretary of the party mandated him to speak on his behalf? Or is Bala now the National Chairman of the party or BoT chairman to have
arrogated such “all-in-all power” to himself? The answer is capital NO!
“Secondly, Mallam Bala Abdulgafar Dirisu was only a mere placeholder to quickly fill the gubernatorial space just to beat the deadline of INEC submission, so that if the party later gets a credible governorship candidate, he will be replaced based on the decision of the National Working Committee of the party through an NMC meeting. But funny enough, he started feeling like authentic governorship candidate of the party and without any kind of meeting with other members of the NWC he went to Lokoja to claim to have endorsed APC gubernatorial candidate, Usman Ododo, on behalf of the party.
“Again, I ask, is Bala Idrisu now the all in all of the 47 members of the NWC of the party? We know that the answer is capital NO! It’s of note that even Kogi State Executive Committee was not carried along. Our investigation revealed that he only did the backyard business”.
“The fact remains and I reaffirm that, there was no meeting of NRM where such so called endorsement was discussed let alone agreed upon.”
