The Kogi State governorship candidate of the Accord Party (AP), Vice Admiral Usman Oyibe Jibrin Rtd, has described the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Alhaji Yakubu Murtala Ajaka as the weaker Brand in the November governorship race with no chance of success.
Jibrin who denied an online media report that he had stepped down for Ajaka, warned the SDP candidate against deploying name dropping tactics, saying it wouldn’t fetch him the visibility he desperately sought from Kogi people.
Describing the report as fallacious and malicious, he said there was no iota of truth in it as it was mischievously and deliberately planted to cause confusion.
Jibrin said it was an insult to his person to step down for Muri who by all standards, is a weaker Brand and not his match.
The AP flag bearer made this known in a statement he personally signed and made available to newsmen in Lokoja, urging his supporters and members of the public to discountenance the mischievous report.
The former Naval Chief said he was fully in the governorship race with his running mate, Comrade Raphael Olamife, and could not have withdrawn for anybody, describing the report as a lie from the pit of hell.
Below is a full text of the statement made available to newsmen:
“Our attention has been drawn to a fallacious and apparently malicious online publication by some Reporters mischievously purporting a fairy tale withdrawal from the governorship race by Vice Admiral Usman Oyibe Jibrin of Kogi APP for Alhaji Murtala Yakubu Ajaka of SDP.
“We therefore write to make the following clarifications:That the said publication is completely false, totally mendacious and the hallucinatory imagination of the publisher, who in search for cheap publicity decided to concoct a totally baseless and unfounded fallacy against the person of Vice Admiral Usman Oyibe Jibrin Rtd.
“That there is no reason for Jibrin to withdraw from a race which every available poll analysis places him above other contenders.
“That the write up is a big joke and a clear insult on the person of Vice Admiral Usman Oyibe Jibrin Rtd, who has so far manifested seriousness by triumphing over many adversaries in pursuit of this same governorship project.
“That the article is nothing but a failed attempt at applying the propaganda strategy of deploying a strong brand like Jibrin to accord visibility to a weaker brand through the act of name dropping.
“That the public should disregard the publication as a fabricated lie from the pit of hell and the hatchet job of a desperate pen pushers for little pecuniary benefits and should rather sustain their vociferous, aggressive and massive support for Jibrin whose chiefest pursuit remains the liberation of Kogi state from many years of under development.”
