Supporters of the Director-General of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, Babatunde Irukera, stormed the All Progressives Congress National Secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday to protest against his disqualification from the Kogi State governorship primary holding (Thursday) today.
The party, in a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu, had announced the disqualification of Irukera; a former Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Jibrin Usman (retd.) and five others.
Others disqualified are a former Director-General of the Nigeria Space Research and Development Agency, Prof. Mohammed Onaili, two sons of former governor Audu: Mohammed and Mustapha; Gen. Patrick Akpa and Hajia Rukkaya Ibrahim.
The National Working Committee of the party cleared nine aspirants for the August 29 governorship primary in Kogi State.
Those cleared are the incumbent governor, Yahaya Bello, a former president of the Nigeria Football Federation, Sani Abdullahi; and a younger brother to the late governor Abubakar Audu, Yahaya.
Others are Hadiza Ibrahim, Abubakar Bashir, Danlami Mohammed, Yakubu Mohammed, Hassan Abdullahi and Ekele Blessing.
The supporters of Irukera, under the aegis of Kogi Mandate Group, stormed the secretariat chanting different hate songs and carrying placards with various inscriptions including, “APC, learn from Zamfara,” and “Irukera is our choice.”
Speaking with journalists, the group’s spokesperson, Amos Alfa, wondered why the learned silk was disqualified by the NWC after the appeal committee had cleared him to contest.
Shortly after the protest, the APC finally cleared Irukera to contest.
