The North-Central All Progressives Congress (APC) Forum has pleaded with the APC national chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, to address grievances arising from the party’s just-concluded primary elections and ensure a level playing field for all participating candidates.
The forum specifically cautioned the Yilwatda-led APC National Working Committee (NWC) over the controversies that trailed the conduct of the State Assembly, National Assembly, governorship and presidential primaries of the ruling party.
In a statement issued to journalists in Abuja yesterday by its National Chairman, Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, the forum said it had earlier raised concerns over what it described as the shoddy conduct of the primaries.
According to the statement, more than 50 per cent of APC members are dissatisfied with the way the primaries were conducted.
Highlighting its observations following the exercise’s conclusion, the North-Central APC Forum urged the national chairman and members of the NWC to urgently address the issues raised by aggrieved party members.
The statement also questioned the credibility of the presidential primary results announced by the Chairman of the APC Presidential Primary Election Committee and former Senate President, Pius Anyim.
Anyim had announced that President Bola Tinubu secured 10,999,162 votes to defeat his challenger, Mr. Stanley Osifo, who polled 16,503 votes.
However, the result has generated controversy amid allegations that the figures announced were inflated.
The Forum argued that the figures released by the committee did not tally with the party’s official membership data, alleging that the primary results were manipulated.
“We are concerned that the NWC under the national chairman did not tally the official data of the party with the presidential primary election. The party has eight million registered voters, but when they released the presidential primary result, they announced more than 10 million votes.
“The guidelines stated that only registered members were eligible to vote. This means that what took place across the country was the selection of candidates, not an election,” the statement said.
The forum further lamented that the party has been weakened by the controversies surrounding the primaries, noting that several key members have resigned and joined other political parties due to perceived injustice.
It cited former Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, as one of the latest party chieftains to leave the APC after protesting his alleged loss in the Delta Central senatorial primary. According to the forum, Omo-Agege has since joined the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and reportedly secured a waiver to contest the senatorial election on the party’s platform.
The statement also noted that the APC national chairman’s former Chief of Staff, Mustapha Bala Dawaki, resigned from the party after losing the ticket for the Dawakin Kudu/Warawa Federal Constituency of Kano State. Dawaki was also said to have joined the NDC.