A governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, has said that he cannot trust the leader of the party in the state and Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi to be fair in the contest with others for te seat.

Senator Abe, in a statement today, Thursday in Port Harcourt, said that Amaechi has publicly declared that he will not support his governorship aspirations.

“I am amused by some of these allegations and stories making the rounds. For the records, the disagreement between me and the Minister (Amaechi) is political. He is the leader of the party but he has said publicly on several occasions that he can never support me.

“That means the entire country knows that he cannot pretend to be neutral or an unbiased umpire in any matter in which my interest and the interests of those interested in me are concerned. Yet, as the leader it is his responsibility to provide a level playing field for us all.”

Abe, who is the senator representing Rivers South-East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, insisted that those who converged at the APC secretariat in Port Harcourt on Friday, May 4, were not thugs but members and supporters of the party.

‘The people he (Amaechi) is referring to as thugs and hoodlums today were the same people that were his heroes yesterday. They were the people we used to blockade the Rivers State Judiciary when his government was threatened. They were the people that slept for days outside the Rivers State House of Assembly to protect his government.

“A lot of them were members of Save Rivers Movement who risked and gave their all to birth the APC in this state, and  he knows a lot of them by name, but today they are thugs and hoodlums because he is now the oppressor”.

“We are politicians, tomorrow when we need voters, who will these people now branded as thugs be? People paid for forms, they had their tellers and no one was telling them what was going on, they besieged the state secretariat for explanations.”

“Rather than the leader to come and address them they brought armed policemen to open fire on innocent party men and women. That attack led to the pandemonium at the secretariat.”

“They were there from morning and there was no violence until the police came and opened fire on APC members who were totally peaceful. Who authorised the shooting and why?” [myad]

 Stakeholders in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State have insisted that the only way to ensure transparency in the rescheduled primaries of the party in the State is through direct voting.

The stakeholders, who were drawn from all the Senatorial zones of the state, in a news briefing today, Wednesday, said that direct primaries should be the preferred method for democratic leaning institutions like the APC.

They gave the following reasons for the position they have taken:

1. The members of the party should have equal rights to express their will as to who should be the flag bearers of their party in the Ekiti Gubernatorial race. Direct primaries achieve this.
2. Delegate primary has been highly compromised as witnessed last Saturday and doing it again exposes the party to repeating the same mistake only at a grander level.
3. The NWC itself has shown bias and given that delegate primary is more susceptible to its manipulation especially since it is secret ballot of selected delegates and in selection of officials to administer the same. Direct primaries provide a counter balance to NWC biased influence.
4. Direct primaries provides an easier and cheaper option since it will be on decentralized basis and it will be Option A4 with no ballot papers printed, just result sheets and minimal security.
5. Candidates will be able to canvass more widely and less likely to have opportunities for circumventing the democratic process either with bribes.
6. The demand of Ekiti is direct primary as evidenced by the way the Aspirants voted at the SW Leader Caucus Meeting. Any other plan implemented will be unsafe and dangerous even for our party officials. We must be cautious. The situation is tense in Ekiti today and no security guarantees can be provided to any position that counters the position of our elders and the candidates that met them.

The stakeholders therefore appealed to the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to do the right thing and tow the path of honour and respect Ekiti for the collective benefit of our party, saying that they cannot love Ekiti better than Ekitians and their regional leaders.

“We plead for the voice of reason. We enjoin that our President and voices of our National Leader must be respected and not embarrassed. Let us make Ekiti State APC stronger not weaker.”

They made it clear that Ekiti Progressives in the APC are one, and are united in ensuring the basic tenets of Democracy are upheld in the party despite the embarrassing and terrible situation that was witnessed at the attempted delegate primary held last Saturday in Ado Ekiti.

“We note with dismay the irregularities that preceded that exercise including shoddy arrangements by the organizing committee, lack of clear guidelines by the primary committee, the conflict of interest of its members, use of levers of violence and security agencies at the primary grounds and violation of secret ballot rules including evidence of primary delegates compromised by bribes, threats and intimidation.

“We also note with dismay the incoherent response of the NWC of the party, which seem to be acting at cross purposes with the state executives who had their offices invaded by thugs as well as statements issued seemingly in coordination with one particular candidate to the detriment of others. We also note that one or two NWC members have since claimed no meetings  to discuss Ekiti Post Primary has been held which further puts to test the claim of NWC’s impartiality and ability to constitute an even handed primary committee now and in the Future.

“It is for this reason we commend the intervention of the Southwest Nigeria leaders on the instruction of Mr. President on the brewing crisis in Ekiti.

“We note the democratic fashion of SW Leaders’ intervention and the vote of Aspirants taken which allowed all in attendance to weigh in on the three options available: direct primaries, indirect primaries and consensus. Indeed, it was not surprising that direct primaries were selected as the preferred method by 17 of 24 Aspirants in attendance.”

Those who signed the statement are Chief Segun Ajibulu from Ekiti North Senatorial District, Chief Odetola (Odelodu) from Ekiti North Senatorial, Chief Olu Oyewole Akewi from Ekiti North Senatorial, Ambassador M. Onipede from Ekiti South Senatorial District, Hon Femi Adeleye from Ekiti North Senatorial District, Engineer Bode Adetunji from Ekiti Central District, Chief Tope Omoshilade from Ekiti Central Senatorial District, Pastor Egbeyemi from Ekiti Central Senatorial District, Hon Funmilola Adeyemo from Ekiti Central Senatorial District and Chief (Mrs) Kehinde Olokeshusi from South Senatorial District. [myad]

Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South West, including Chief Bisi Akande, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, Otunba Niyi Adebayo and Chief Pius Akinyelure have risen to save the party from embarrassing arising from the botched primary election in Ekiti last week Saturday.

The leaders, who held a crucial meeting in Abuja today, Wednesday, with all the 33 governorship aspirants that participated in the primary resolved to appeal to all the delegates in Ekiti State to ensure full and active participation at the primary election scheduled for Friday, May 11.

They encouraged delegates to vote according to their conscience and ensure that the process is not monetized in the overall interest of the party, the growth of democracy and consistent with the progressive tradition which the people of the State are noted for.

They also appealed to the aspirants to shun all manners of sharp practices and avoid any resort to violence during the rescheduled primaries.

“Among other issues, the question of how to conduct a free, credible and transparent primary election was discussed at the meeting.  All the Aspirants were agreeable to the intervention and admonition of the leaders that they maintain the peace throughout the process. The Aspirants encouraged the leaders to further discuss with the National Chairman of the party, His Excellency, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, on the way forward.

“Specifically, the leaders were mandated to discuss with the National Chairman of the party on the possibility of an option of Direct Primaries for the conduct of the rescheduled primaries, as provided for in Article 20 of our party’s constitution to enable every card-carrying member of the party vote for an aspirant of his or her choice.

“As opposed to the Delegates System, the Aspirants believe Direct Primary election is more transparent, less monetised and energises the democratic system through the participation and involvement of the generality of the party members.

“After a subsequent meeting of the leaders with the National Chairman of the party, with the Ekiti State Chairman of the party, Chief Jide Awe, and two representatives of the Aspirants, Engr. Segun Oni and Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele, in attendance, it was decided that given the extent of planning and logistics involved and the closeness of the deadline for the conduct of primaries by all political parties in Ekiti State as well as submission of names of candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), it would be better to go by the decision of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to conduct a fresh Indirect Primary Election in Ekiti State on Friday, 11^th May, 2018, the leaders having been assured by both the National Chairman of the party as well as His Excellency, Governor Tanko Al-Makura that the rejuvenated Primary Election Committee would put new and extra measures in place to ensure a restoration of the integrity of the electoral process aimed at producing a credible Candidate with the highest number of votes.

In view of this, the entire leadership of the party from the South West geo-political region hereby Thank you.” [myad]