Posted by Media allegations that Kogi State Chairman of the Action Democratic Congress, (ADC) John Adaji had switched to the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC) have been disproven.
On Saturday, during a campaign rally in Okehi and Adavi Local Government, Adaji addressed a crowd of supporters and characterized the report as false.
Adaji urged the people to disregard the report and clarified that the ADC has not disbanded in favor of another political organization.
In his own words, Adoji declared, “I stand here before you live and direct, that I am the authentic Chairman of the ADC in Kogi State.” I’m here with you and with our candidate for governor, Elder Leke Abejide, because we can’t have two captains in one ship. I also guaranteed the integrity of the ADC architecture. The purported Chairman who has defected to the APC has long since been kicked out of the ADC.
Adoji said that an expelled party member was spreading the rumors, saying, “The impostor, who is behind the fake news, had been suspended by the executives of ADC at his Ogga/Omi/Odo-Ara ward in Yagba West LGA for anti-party actions and theft of money.
The ward committee voted to suspend him, and that vote was supported by the local government committee, the state working committee, and the national working committee. The party eventually kicked him out in October of last year,” he said.
Adagu Suberu, a former chairman of Okehi local government and the current director general of the African Democratic Congress’s (ADC) campaign council for the governorship race between Leke Abejide and Idris Omede, said that the ADC leadership in Kogi State is made up of defectors from both the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party.
He said that the uprising was a response to the ruling party’s anti-people policies, such as its refusal to pay local government employees and elementary school instructors a living wage.
For 19 years, the Igala ruled Ebiraland, but in 2015, by God’s design, sovereignty passed to us, and we gave birth to Yahaya Bello. He campaigned for, and won, a second term in 2019. In 2023, our brothers in Kogi West have earned the right to rule. But when you went and picked another Ebira candidate, I stopped being a staunch APC supporter. Next Kogi State governor will be from Okun. Okun lokan, Leke Abejide lokan.
‘Ebiras are not avaricious by nature. The Okun and the Ebira share a similar culture. Having access to power by each zone will produce even growth, as I am aware, was discussed at length by our West and Central leaders.
We have no need to go around with daggers, knives, or guns. It is possible to have a peaceful transfer of power. This is typical of states undergoing a peaceful transition, he said.
Leke Abejide, the ADC candidate for governor, has pledged to reexamine the civil service screening exercise begun by the Yahaya Bello administration if he is elected.
He explained that this was done so that wrongfully terminated employees might return to their former positions with the government and get back pay in full.
Many government workers in Kogi State have become sick or committed suicide as a result of the unacceptable 17-25 percent salary payout system. He remarked, “I started giving free WAEC fees to schools in five LGAs six years ago, and now I’m going to do the same thing for public schools in other LGAs across the state.”