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Adelowo Oladipo, Minna
The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate for Saturday’s governorship election in Niger state, Hajiya Khadijat Abdullahi-Iya has debunked rumours that she has withdrawn from the race, just as she also insists that the party is not in any merger plans with the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC).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 the only female contestant out of the 17 Governorship candidates standing for political parties that would be testing their popularity and level of acceptability in Niger state during the rescheduled Saturday March 18, 2023 Governorship and state Assembly elections made the disclosures over the weekend in Minna during an interactive session with the newsmen.
Khadijat said, “Though, I’m a green horn, venturing into Nigerian politics for the first time, but I have been an active voice in Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) championing the cause for good governance and I am confident that Nigerlites will support my aspirations”.
According to her, “It is not true that I have withdrawn from the gubernatorial race, or that we have collapsed our structure into the All Progressive Congress (APC) by ten political parties as claimed by the party.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 explained that she decided to join the race to give a voice to women in Niger state and Nigeria in general, particularly, “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 Gubernatotial Flagbearer in the state has debunked social media report claiming that she and nine other political parties have collapsed their structures in support of the ruling APC, saying she has come too far to back down for anyone 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, describing those behind the perceived ‘fake news’ as ‘lacking in integrity and showing that they are not worthy to lead’.
In a related development, 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.
In a statement issued and personally signed by, Dr. Ifeanyi Okeke, Chairman, PCC, Niger state said, “We observe with dismay the inclusion of Labour Party in the list of some 12 political parties purportedly supporting the candidature of Hon. Umaru Mohammed Bago of the APC in the forthcoming governorship and State Assembly elections, that the parties will give him their votes”.
In debunking the purported merger, the statement said, “It 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 supporters to ignore the ruling party’s claims and to remain steadfast ahead of Saturday’s election, the statement added that “Dr. Joshua Bawa remains the LP Governorship candidate in Niger State, “and he is not in alliance with any political party, not even the APC”.
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