Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, has become the first presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to pay for the party’s expression of interest and nomination forms ahead of the party’s presidential primary election billed for May 30-June 1, 2022.
Bello paid the required N100 million for the purchase of the forms early on Tuesday.
Director, media and publicity of the Yahaya Bello presidential campaign organisation, Yemi Kolapo, who disclosed this in a statement issued on Tuesday, said the development made the governor the first to officially seal his aspiration to the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023.
She recalled that Nigerians from all walks of life stormed the Eagle Square in Abuja on Saturday, April 2, to witness the official acceptance of Bello to vie for the 2023 presidency.
She urged Bello’s teeming supporters to be rest assured that with the payment for the forms, the Kogi governor would be on the ballot paper in the 2023 presidential race.
She stated: “We are highly encouraged by the number of APC governors, leaders and stakeholders who have demonstrated their strong support for the candidacy of our principal.
“We reiterate that he is not known for betrayal. He is always very loyal to his own, and his priorities had always been Nigeria, Nigeria and Nigeria.
“Though the race officially begins now, it is on record that Bello has consistently been at the forefront of the contest.
“He has demonstrated this again by being the first to pay for the APC expression of interest and nomination forms.
“We urge delegates and indeed all Nigerians to shun divisive narratives in the interest of the nation and choose the best of the lot,” she said.
Kolapo further said she was confident that the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC would put the interest of the party and that of the country first in its activities for the emergence of the party’s 2023 presidential candidate.
She noted that the last few months had witnessed persistent calls by youth, women and professional groups across Nigeria on the Kogi governor to contest the 2023 presidential election.
“With Sen. Jonathan Zwingina as the Chairman of the Hope ’23 Yahaya Bello Presidential Campaign Organisation, and Hafsat Abiola-Costello as the Director-General, the tone is set for hope to be actualised for Nigerians in 2023,” she stated