May 30, (THEWILL) – Controversial Kogi State politician, Natasha Akpoti, has launched herself back to political relevance after her failed bid to challenge the incumbent, Governor Yahaya Bello in November 2019 governorship election.
The self-styled social entrepreneur had made a previous attempt to run for a seat in the National Assembly, representing Kogi Central Senatorial District on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), but in vain.
Akpoti had claimed at the time that Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State had planned to assassinate her for daring to give expression to her political ambition. She had alleged manipulation and rigging in favour of the All Progressive Congress candidate, Yakubu Oseni, as the reason for her loss. She immediately shifted focus to the governorship. However, her ambition in that direction failed to happen and she challenged the result of the election, alleging that the election was marred by irregularities, bribery and malpractice, all of which favoured Bello to emerge winner. But she failed to provide proof of her allegation when she took the case to court.
Ironically before her political ambition, she was in Bello’s good books and was even closer to his wives until their friendship was torn apart by politics of bitterness. Following her marriage to the Alema of Warri, Chief Emmanuel Uduaghan, she dumped the SDP for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) where she has now emerged the party’s senatorial candidate in the forthcoming 2023 general election.
However, Akpoti’s emergence is considered to be deeply flawed. The same reason she gave for failing to win the senatorial and governorship elections on the platform of the SDP is being peddled by her co-contestants, following her emergence as the PDP senatorial candidate.
While the aggrieved contestants accused the state Chairman of the party of alleged manipulation of delegates from all the five local government councils in the district, one cannot totally exonerate Akpoti from the allegation. In other words, the delegates were manipulated into ensuring that she emerged the preferred candidate. Six of the aggrieved aspirants have since petitioned the National Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Adamu, seeking justice for their ambition.
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