Governorship Election: APC Forwards Sylva, Uzodinmma, Ododo’s Names to INEC

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has forwarded the names of the governorship candidates of the party for Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ahead of the November 11, 2023 governorship elections.

The ruling party in a letter dated April 17, 2023, jointly signed by the Deputy National Chairman (North), Senator Abubakar Kyari and the National Secretary of the party, Senator Iyiola Omisore, was addressed to the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.

The names of the candidates of the party forwarded to the electoral umpire were: the governorship candidate of the party in Bayelsa State and former Minister of Petroleum, Timipre Sylva; the candidate of the party in Kogi State, Ahmed Adodo and the candidate of the party in Imo State, Senator Hope Uzondinma.

The letter read: “We write to forward the under-listed list of our party’s Candidates to your Commission for the 2023 off-season gubernatorial elections.

“His Excellency, Chief Timipre Sylva – Bayeisa State; His Excellency, Senator Hope Uzodimma – Imo State; Ahmed Usman Ododo – Kogi State.”

Sylva defeated the former candidate of the party in the last gubernatorial election, Mr. David Lyon and four other aspirants to emerge winner of the contest, which took place across the 106 wards in the eight local government areas (LGAs) of the state on April 24.

Sylva had polled a total of 52,061 votes from the 55,141 accredited delegates, while Lyon came a distant third with 1,872 votes, Joshua MacIver came second with 2,078 votes.

In Kogi State, Ododo scored 78,704 to emerge as the candidate of the party. The candidature of Ododo was ratified by a Special Congress of the party, as stipulated in the guidelines for the primary election held on April 14.

The ratification followed the emergence of Ododo, a former Auditor-General for Local Governments in the state, as the APC governorship candidate at the party’s direct governorship primary election held across all the 239 wards of the state

However, some governorship aspirants of the APC in the state including Senator Smart Adeyemi; former Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Prof. Stephen Ocheni; son of the late ex-Governor Abubakar Audu, Shuiabu; and a member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC, Murtala Ajaka, had rejected the results of the primary election.

In Imo, no one contested against the incumbent governor, Uzondinmma.