NATIONAL Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu says the party will win the November 16 governorship election in Kogi State.

Despite poor records of performance, incumbent governor of the state, Yahaya Bello was elected the party’s flag-bearer last Thursday after securing 3,127 votes out of a total of 3,596 delegates that were accredited.

But Tinubu who spoke in Benin during the 90th birthday celebration of the Esogban of Benin, David Edebiri, said APC would win both governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states because ‘all stakeholders would work in unison, like the bunch of brooms that swept the debris of the past for a better Nigeria.’

Bayelsa State which is currently under the control of the people’s Democratic Party (PDP).

“What I expect in Bayelsa and Kogi is victory. There is no other party in the states…politics is a market of many branches and this is the broom; the broom will come together as a bunch to sweep all the debris of the past. That is it, and we are going to win the election,” Tinubu said.

However, reacting to the choice of Yahaya Bello as the APC candidate, Kogi State PDP says the forthcoming election has become a walkover given the poor performance record of the governor.

Bode Ogunmola, PDP spokesperson in the state said the choice of Bello would ensure an easy win for the party.

Ogunmola cited “general public resentment against Bello’s administration” as another reason PDP would win the election.

According to him, the party had, all along, been praying for the APC to “make the mistake of re-presenting Governor Bello.”

“It is a well-known fact that Governor Bello cannot win any local government, given his poor performance and the way and manner the resources of the state are being massively looted”  he said.

“His desperation to return is to save himself from going to prison over looted funds. That was why he had to spend hugely to get strong contenders disqualified.

“If he succeeds in fooling the leadership of his party and the delegates, we are confident that he cannot fool Kogi electorate who are victims of his monumental mis-governance.”

Ogunmola assured the electorate that it was determined to give the state “a better alternative,” adding that it remains “the most credible alternative.”

Meanwhile, the PDP has 13 aspirants jostling for the governorship ticket.

The aspirants were screened by a Screening Committee headed by the Governor of Taraba State, Darius Ishaku, at the PDP presidential campaign office in Maitama, popularly called the Legacy House.

According to the list, the aspirants cleared in Kogi State include Wada Idris, Dino Melaye, Erico Ameh, Aminu Suleiman, Grace Adejoh, Abubakar Ibrahim, Kabiru Haruna, Musa Wada, Saliu Atawodi Mohammed Adah, Victor Adoji, Baye Averehi, and Emmanuel Omebije.