Kogi 2019: Fresh crisis rocks PDP as ex-Governor moves to impose son as candidate

A major crisis is brewing in the Kogi State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party as concerned members are mobilising to protest the moves by ex-Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, to impose his son, Abubakar, as the party’s candidate in the state’s governorship election slated for November.
Abubakar Idris declared his intention to run for the office once occupied by his father last year.
However, it is the manner in which the party leadership in the state is being forced into adopting the ex-governor’s son that is setting the stage for a major confrontation.
PDP members in the state, still smarting from the mismanagement of the nomination process in the 2019 general elections, are raising the alarm, warning that any attempt to impose another candidate in the coming governorship election would backfire.
Party stalwarts accused Idris of killing the PDP in Kogi State while in office, pointing out that all the poor foundation he laid contributed to its poor outing in 2015.
The stalwarts revealed that one of the ex-governor’s plan to foist his son on the party is in the exorbitant nomination fee, which they said is already driving many good potential candidates out of the PDP into other parties.
“In the last two weeks, they have asked aspirants to pay the sum of N75 million as nomination form fee without giving any genuine reason why aspirants are being asked to pay such ridiculous amount,” one aggrieved members said.
According to them, the strategy is similar to the one used during the National Assembly/presidential election when high nomination fees were used to push our potentially good candidates in favour of Senator Attai Aidoko, who was later fielded.
They, however, warned that if Idris is not checked by the national leadership of the party,  the PDP will fail woefully in its mandate to produce the next governor of the state and that the error will also mark the exit of the party from the state polity.
The party stalwarts lamented that fact that a man whose records during his nine years in office can only be described as disastrous, would be allowed to dictate who would be the party’s flag bearer in the upcoming election.
The ex-governor was equally accused of losing touch with reality in Kogi State, pointing out that his recent interview, where he said that he had no idea of the prevailing hardship in the state, is enough evidence that neither he nor his son have anything good to offer.
They queried how any dynasty built by a man who is oblivious of the misery that poor leadership is producing in the state can be good for Kogites, pointing out that it was better for the PDP to realise the error of allowing a man like Idirs to pick a governorship candidate for the party in order to save it from obvious defeat in November.
The party men said the way out of the defeat staring PDP in in the face was to allow the party run the selection process according to laid down rules and regulations, rather than allow an ex-governor, who failed in his time, to impose his son.
Idris’s tenure, it was further pointed out, enjoyed one of the economically healthiest moments of the country, with the price of oil relatively high, internally generated revenue in the state receiving as much as 150 per cent boost, but Kogi State under his watch failed miserably to record any meaningful development.