Kogi Guber: Desperate Wada Dumps Awoniyi

The National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have began moves to avert a defeat in the forthcoming gubernatorial elections in Kogi State. This much was gathered after a high powered meeting chaired by the Board of Trustees Chairman of the Party in Abuja today.

Also in attendance were Sola Akanmonde, Sen. Ahmadu Ali, Gen. Tunde Ogbeha, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris and some other high ranking members of the party in the state, including the governor of the state, Capt. Idris Wada. At the meeting which was held at the Ondo state governors Lodge in Abuja, a front line gubernatorial aspirant Alhaji Jibrin Isah Echocho was prevailed upon to step down for Capt Idris Wada being that he is an incumbent and in the event that he loses the primaries, it might be untoward.

A source who was privy to the details of the meeting stated that " at a point when Echocho was prevailed upon to step down, Gov. Wada offered to trade in his deputy, Arch. Yomi Awoniyi for Echocho to nominate any body of his choice as deputy governor. " the source also stated that, Gov. Wada also conceded ten slots for commissioners" .

At that point it was revealed that Echocho told the gathering that " his aspirations for the people of Kogi state cannot be achieved by nominating deputy governor and ten commissioners" " Echocho also stated that " the first task is to win before the issue of deputy governor and commissioners. As it stands, Wada can't win an election in Kogi state and that's the issue and I want to place it on record that he (Wada) knows that I have a comparative advantage over him as candidate if I emerge the candidate of the party. I am very surprised he is avoiding a contest at the primaries. I will defeat him at the primaries and go ahead to win the Governorship poll. So,let's meet at the primaries on Monday".

At this point, Olusola Akanmonde who it was gathered, Wada promised to hand over to in 2019 pleaded with Echocho to consider the issue of power shift. The source also stated that Echocho quickly responded that he was ready to do a single term of four years.

A member of the NWC when contacted for his comments, said: "Governor Wada’s leadership has destroyed the base of PDP reliable voters. Precisely, the result from the last presidential and legislative elections in Kogi State has shown that the PDP strongholds have been largely taken over by the APC.

.....This is due to the growing number of PDP members that are aggrieved with Wada’s inappropriate headship. To a large extent, this fragmentation of party loyalists has made Governor Idris Wada to be widely reviled and rejected by most PDP members except those who benefit from his abuse of the Kogi state treasury."

Our source stated that when Wada was confronted with his health challenges,which he didn't deny, he was advised to go and have a rethink and revert to them before Sunday afternoon.