Abba Yaro under fire for claiming he rigged 2019 APC primary for Steve Lawani

PRESS STATEMENT

On Abba Yaro’s Unguarded Utterances At Dan Onjeh’s Declaration: Our Stand – LACO
The attention of the Lawani Campaign Organization (LACO) has been drawn to the show of shame by the immediate-past chairman of APC in Benue state, Comrade Abba Yaro, at the senatorial declaration of Daniel Onjeh on 19/03/2022, wherein he claimed to have rigged the 2019 Benue South Senatorial primaries of the APC in favour of Chief Stephen Lawani, OFR.

While the Lawani Campaign Organization would have ordinarily disregarded the attention-seeking utterances, it is also pertinent to set the records straight for the benefits of unsuspecting members of the public who might be deceived by the stomach infrastructure-motivated outing of the former APC state chairman.

We wish to react as follows:

1. LACO wishes to draw the attention of APC members in Benue state, the general public and lovers of our hard-earned democracy to the deceitful nature of Comrade Abba Yaro, a man whose integrity carries a price tag on it, and can be easily purchased by the highest bidder. Abba Yaro’s tenure as state chairman of APC was ignominious and will continue to exist as the darkest part of Benue APC history.

His outing yesterday was a clear display of his personality and character. Abba Yaro can say and do anything to please the table that feeds him at the moment. He is a man who seldom thinks beyond his stomach. This accounts for his inability to elevate himself from the status of a financially disabled man, despite holding the exalted position of state chairman of a political party for the past 16years.

2. Yesterday’s event was another vacuous attempt by Abba Yaro to get back at a political aspirant who do not quickly meet his unending financial requests. A few weeks ago, Abba Yaro met with several aides of H.E Chief Stephen Lawani, OFR, demanding that the governorship aspirant buys him an SUV to replace the one which was recovered from him a few months ago by a former benefactor who also became a victim of his political treachery, when monies and gifts to sustain his ostentatious lifestyle was no longer forthcoming.

Not receiving any positive response from the extremely busy governorship aspirant, who is currently touring the 23 LGAs in the state for consultations, Abba Yaro felt the best way to get Chief Lawani’s attention was to act a poorly written script to please his current paymasters. We wish to however, advise that current friends who enjoy his treachery today be wary lest they find themselves at the receiving end of the sword tomorrow. Abba Yaro lacks the consistency to be loyal to a single person for so long.

3. We wish to make it clear that Chief Stephen Lawani, OFR, is an unrepentant democrat who believes in working hard for his victories; both at the primaries and general elections, and wouldn’t have been part of, or sanctioned any rigging whatsoever.

He is currently working extremely hard, touring all the 23 LGAs in the state after consulting in all the zones and intermediate areas of the state, to sell his reform-promising policies to party stakeholders and Benue people ahead of the Governorship primaries of the APC.

A man who believes or sanctions rigging will sit at home, relaxing and waiting for the appointed time to unleash his rigging tools on the party, he will not be working tirelessly like Chief Lawani is currently doing to earn the confidence and support of the overwhelming party stakeholders and possible delegates.

4. Irrespective of our position, supported by a plethora of evidence(s), that Chief Lawani won the 2019 Benue South senatorial primaries of the APC lawfully, We wish to stress that election rigging is a criminal act, and public admission to have participated in a crime calls for serious consequences. Aside the moral toga that will continue to define Comrade Abba Yaro as a threat to our evolving democracy, and therefore unfit for a civil society such as ours, LACO as an organization built on the tripods of democracy, rule of law and due process of the law, feels obligated to urge the relevant authorities to swing into action, arrest and investigate the public confession to the commission of crime by Abba Yaro.

5. We find it laughable; a weak punch of a desperate man, that in an election monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), relevant security agencies, other state officers of the party and agents of all the aspirants, such a serious rigging would take place without the agents of the aspirants taking notice of it and the aspirants themselves challenging the outcome of the election, and that it has remained a secret until the poor outing of Comrade Abba Yaro yesterday. This is a concocted lie, designed to malign the person of Chief Stephen Lawani, OFR, and distract him from the tedious campaign to offer Benue people purposeful leadership come 2023.

6. It is ironical that a man who claims to have outsmarted everyone, including the security agencies and INEC, to rig a primary election, could not bring this dexterity to bear in his polling unit where he consistently recorded very poor outing in all the elections under his watch as Chairman of APC.

7. It is also an irreconcilable blunder, and lies taken too far, that Comrade Abba Yaro could rig for Chief Steven Lawani OFR in the Nine LGAs of Benue South Senatorial district and be unable to rig the assembly primaries for Hon. Akola, his political godson and candidate in the Ogbadibo 2019 state assembly primaries of the APC, who could only secure two votes in the primary election.

8. A man who as state chairman of APC, romanced and collected money from PDP members to allow them perpetually win in his polling unit and other areas, has a character deficiency that makes it mandatory to take anything he says with a bag of salt.

We will not be distracted. We wish to reiterate, even at the risk of repetition, that no amount of blackmail, lies and misinformation, will break the resolute resolve of Benue people to support Chief Stephen Lawani, OFR, for #ABetterBenueForAll come 2023

Comrade Sylvanus Okpe
Media and Communications Director at Lawani Campaign Organization (LACO)
20/03/2022