Ms Hasfat Abiola-Costello, the Director-General, Yahaya Bello Presidential Campaign Organisation, has said she will stand with Governor Yahaya Bello (GYB) of Kogi State in the race for the APC presidential ticket and not South West aspirants.
Abiola-Costello said she is throwing her weight behind Bello because she had seen in him, qualities of the kind of leader Nigeria needed at this point in time.
She said this on Monday while addressing newsmen in Lagos ahead of the APC presidential primaries slated for May 30 and 31, in Abuja.
Abiola-Costello, daughter of the winner of the 1993 presidential election, late Chief MKO Abiola, said she chose Bello over all other South West aspirants because she had seen in him, a true commitment to the progress of the country.
She also said she is proud of the governor’s records in Kogi.
Abiola-Costello, however, said Bello was a loyal and respectful person, who would carry everyone along after he emerged.
On the economy, she noted that statistics from the World Bank on states’ accountability rating in Nigeria indicated that Kogi ranked top among other states in the country.
She said: “This is a man who met a debt profile of about N135 billion in Kogi when he assumed office in 2016 but had been able to reduce it to about N70 billion.
“This is in addition to his huge investments in education, agriculture, security and infrastructural developments.
“The World Bank accountability ranking of states in Nigeria evaluated Kogi as second in 2017, first in 2018 and 2019.
“The draft report for 2020 shows that Kogi scored 100 per cent in all the areas and from indications, the state will maintain the first position in 2021, judging from the draft report that was released just yesterday.
“I am proud of Bello because of his development records in Kogi. This is a governor that is always looking for progress and the development of the lives of his people.
“This is me, a Yoruba, supporting someone from North Central.
“There is no progress without demands, I lost both my parents, though unfortunately because Nigerians believed in them. I’ve been working with GYB for a while and I have seen that he has the courage and intelligence to deliver Nigeria.”
She said as one of the foremost presidential aspirants of the party, Bello had reached out to party stakeholders in nearly all parts of the country, adding that he stood a better chance to clinch the party’s ticket than others. (NAN)
