The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has adopted the direct mode of primary election to pick its candidate for the September 21, 2024 Edo State governorship poll.
LEADERSHIP reports that the ruling party had fixed the primary election to nominate a flag bearer for the Edo gubernatorial poll on February 17, while sales of forms had commenced on January 10 to end on January 29.
APC Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Duro Meseko, stated this while briefing journalists at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday about the outcome of the National Working Committee (NWC) meeting with stakeholders from Edo State late Monday night.
Meseko said the NWC being resolute to reclaim Edo for APC, charged the stakeholders to consult with the 29 aspirants jostling for the party’s governorship ticket with the aim of pruning down the number so as to go in the main election as a united force.
The APC deputy spokesperson noted that having 29 or more aspirants in a direct election will pose logistics challenge, saying so far only one contender has obtained the Expression of Interest and Nomination forms but the party was more concerned with victory than the money accruing from the sale of forms.
Meseko also said the party has not allocated the position of the governorship seat to any part of the state, hence people from the three senatorial districts in Edo State can vie for the 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 the primary election.
“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.
“The NWC also resolved that for want of time, the E-registration exercise of the party for fresh members be conducted after the primaries in order not to derail the smooth conduct of the primaries.
“The stakeholders were urged by the NWC to promote unity within the ranks of the Party in order to go into the election as one family bound by progressive ideals and fully geared to reclaim the Party’s mandate in Edo State,” Meseko stated.
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.
“Edo is an APC state. Now we have to take Edo back. We have only one state from the South South for the greatest party in Africa which is not acceptable. We were able to get only Cross River State; after crossing so many rivers we succeeded in getting Cross River. But Edo State, we Isha Allah must get it.”
On his part, a former APC national chairman and Edo State leader of the party, Sen. Adams Oshiomole, said they were resolute in reclaiming the state from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming governorship election.
Oshiomole said APC stakeholders in Edo have embarked on series of dialogue with governorship aspirants to ensure a rancour-free primary and to eventually win the September 21 governorship poll.
He said: “We are particularly determined, as you can see everybody here has a robust past and even present. We are determined to reclaim Edo State. I used the word reclaim because Edo is ours. We lost it due to several factors some of which were caused by some APC elements.
“On our part, we have tried to initiate dialogue among our aspirants. It is no secret, that at the time we had the dialogue, I think they (aspirants) were 27. I learned it has increased to 29 now. The process is ongoing, and the struggle continues. So we are looking forward to a healthy deliberation.”
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