The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has adopted the direct mode of primary election to pick its candidate for the September 21 Edo State governorship polls.
APC deputy national publicity secretary, Duro Meseko stated this while briefing journalists at the party’s National Secretariat, Abuja yesterday on the outcome of the National Working Committee (NWC) meeting with stakeholders from Edo late Monday night.
LEADERSHIP reports that the ruling party had fixed the primary election to nominate a flag bearer for the Edo gubernatorial polls on February 17 while sales of forms commenced on January 10 to end on January 29.
Meseko said the NWC, being resolute to reclaim Edo for APC, urged the stakeholders to consult with the 29 aspirants jostling for the party’s ticket with the aim of proning down the number so as to go in the main election as a united force.
The deputy spokesperson noted that having 29 or more aspirants in a direct election will pose a logistics challenge, saying so far only one contender has obtained the forms.
The party, he said, was more concerned with victory than the money accruing from the sale of forms.
Meseko also said the party has not zone the position of governorship to any part of state, hence people from the three senatorial districts in Edo can vie for its ticket.
He also said to avoid litigations by dissatisfied aspirants after the primary election, it has been resolved that another form be attached to the nomination forms in which contenders will sign an undertaking not to take legal action.
“After due consultations with Edo State APC stakeholders, the NWC has approved direct primaries as the mode of election to be used to produce the Governorship candidate of the Party for the state.
“In view of the large numbers of aspirants jostling for the Party’s ticket in Edo State, the NWC urged the stakeholders to unite in trimming the number of aspirants.
“The NWC urged all the governorship aspirants to exhibit Party discipline and patriotism by shunning the attitude of running to the Courts at every opportunity instead of exploring internal dispute resolution mechanisms, especially after party primaries.
‘It was resolved that for the smooth running of the Party, all members should ensure strict compliance with their financial obligations to the Party, in line with the party’s constitution”.
In his remarks at the opening of the meeting, the APC national chairman, Dr Abduallahi Ganduje insisted that stakeholders and the party must improve internal democracy for a popular and widely acceptable candidate to emerge as the party’s flag bearer to enable it reclaim Edo State.
He said: “We have to improve our internal democracy – we have to deepen and widen it. We need to understand the party and its manifesto; its rules and regulations. We need to understand its philosophy.
“We need to move towards having a party ideology so that we will not be an ordinary political association whereby everybody can come in just to win an election.
“We have to be transparent and at the same time we have to also adopt a guided democracy where we can discuss issues so that we limit, if possible, the number of contestants.”
On his part, the former APC national chairman and Edo State leader of the party, Senator Adams Oshiomhole said they were resolute to reclaim the state from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming governorship election.
Oshiomhole said APC stakeholders in Edo had embarked on a series of dialogues with governorship aspirants to ensure a rancour-free primary and to eventually win the September 21 governorship polls.
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