The Labour Party ( LP) in Kaduna State has conducted a substitution primary where the immediate past National President of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union ( SOKAPU), Hon. Jonathan Asake, emerged as its governorship candidate in the 2023 gubernatorial election in the state.
A former Majority Leader in the Kaduna State House Assembly who was also a Commissioner of Works in the state,Alhaji Bashir Idris Aliyu Zangon Aya, was picked as the running mate of the LP candidate.
Asake,a former House of Representatives member, said that he was joining the governorship race to Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, come 2023.to answer the clarion call of the people.
While thanking the LP delegates who came from the 23 Local Government area of the state for the substitution primaries, Asake said “what you’ve been hearing is now confirmed that I have answered a clarion call by people and by the larger people of Kaduna State that I should contest for the gubernatorial election come 2023.”
According to Asake, “the LP’s is determined to wrestle power from the All Progressives Congress ( APC) in the state and bring it back to its golden days .”
“I appreciate the delegates and party leaders, I promised to be governor to everybody irrespective of where you come from or your religion if elected the next governor of the state, come 2023.”
He said: “I feel excited but I also see the stepping down of my co-contestant as a sign of the kind of government we are going to form; a government of unity; a government of stepping down our individual and personal interest for the interest of the general public.”
“When we come, we will ensure inclusiveness in government, justice, fairness for everybody. When a leader does this, there will be less rancour. There will be peace, progress and development. That is the kind of leadership that the Labour Party is throwing up for Nigeria. That is the option that we are coming up with.”
“I have worked as the National President of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, where I often visit communities that have been attacked and displaced and it has also been happening all over the state, not only in Kaduna but all over the country.”
“The basic essence of government anywhere in the world is to provide security and the well-being of the people and where a government fails to provide those basic constitutional requirements, that government loses its own legitimacy. So, the Labour Party is throwing up leaders that have the security of the people at the top of their heart.”
“I am coming as a leader that will ensure security of lives and properties, first and foremost and provide the well-being of the people, infrastructure for the people all over the place. I will not be a leader that is sectional. I will not want to be a leader that is divided along sentimental lines because all about leadership is about humanity and that is what the Labour Party is throwing up for you.”
“I am also very sure that Nigerians and indeed, the people of Kaduna State, have seen the difference, that they have manipulated our diversity and it has reached the peak and we now know the difference and that all that matters, is good leadership where the people will be happy and that is what we are out to do,” he said.
Asake emerged as a candidate through affirmation by party delegates during a substitution primary supervised by the Independent National Electoral Commission at the NUT Hotel, Kaduna.
Earlier, the “placeholder” of the party’s governorship ticket in the state, Mr. Shunom Adinga, had stepped down for Asake amidst rousing ovation.
Stalwarts of the Labour Party during the primaries were the Senatorial candidate for the Southern Kaduna Senatorial District, Michael Ayuba-Auta, the state LP chairman, among others .