The Kogi State Auditor-General, Ahmed Usman Ododo, has emerged as the winner of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primaries to become the party’s candidate for the November 11 gubernatorial election.
Ododo, who was reportedly endorsed by Governor Yahaya Bello as his preferred successor, won with 78,704 votes in the direct primaries conducted on Friday by the APC in all council wards of the State.
Other aspirants who contested the ruling party’s primaries including Senator Smart Adeyemi got 311 votes, while another aspirant, Ozigi Salami, scored 1,506 votes.
Earlier, top frontrunners in the governorship election including the Deputy Governor, Edward Onoja, and the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Mohammed Abdulkareem Asuku, withdrew from the race.
The decision of the duo was taken at a critical stakeholders meeting of the APC hosted by Gov. Bello at the State Secretariat of the party in Lokoja on Thursday, where the governor reportedly unveiled his preferred candidate.
METROWATCH learned that Governor Bello, at the meeting, told the party stakeholders that he has chosen Ahmed Usman Ododo, a former Auditor-General of the State, as his preferred successor.
Other aspirants like Mr David Adebanji Jimoh; a former Commissioner for Finance; Asiwaju Ashiru Idris; Okala Yakubu, and Momoh Jubril subsequently announced their withdrawal from the governorship race.
