Tony Osauzo, Benin
Edo State chairmen of Local Government Councils on the platform of Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), have insisted on the use of indirect mode of primary election to pick the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the party’s June 22 primary election in the state.
Addressing journalists in Benin City, vice chairman of ALGON who is also the chairman of Etsako Central Local Government Council, Hon Joseph Akhigbe, said with the ravaging Coronavirus, the indirect mode of primary was the best option to adopt.
Akhigbe who stood in for ALGON chairman, Jekins Osunde, said: “To propose a direct primary governorship nomination process for our political party in the current season of a global pandemic, to create a gathering where thousands of our party members will have to intimately relate with a zero prospect of social distancing, is to us irresponsible and humanly reckless.
“For a party that was founded on the principles of the supremacy of the interest of the people, Edo State ALGON is shocked that the National Working Committee (NWC) of our party had supposedly opted to conduct a direct primary process of nomination for Edo governorship. We believe that the members of the NWC will not want to be chronicled as the political leaders who were willing to sacrifice the lives of their members for the ungodly advantage of securing a political advantage in an election.
“Edo State ALGON hereby makes clear our resolution that indirect primary is the safest option, the most humane and healthy alternative for the APC 2020 governorship primaries.
“We stand solidly and irrevocably with the position of the state leadership of our party under the dynamic chairman, Barr Anselm Ojezua and the expressed thoughtful concerns of our political leaders and supporters worldwide”.
The council chairmen said they were solidly behind the programmes of the administration of the Governor Godwin Obaseki who they said was performing well in all the sectors of the state.
But supporters of the direct primaries have argued that it is the safer option that will allow all party members participate in the nomination of their governorship candidate in their various wards in a disperse manner as against the indirect primaries in which about 5,000 delegates and officials would gather in one spot, thereby increasing the prospect of the spread of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, governor Godwin Obaseki and some of his aides have reportedly paid a visit to the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu in Lagos with the prospect of seeking his intervention in the feud between him and the national chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.