Thirty seven aspirants under the auspices of Coalition of Kogi state All Progressives Congress (APC) have supported the indirect primaries adopted by the APC National Working Committee (NWC) to elect the party’s candidate for Nov. 16 governorship poll.
The Chairman of the Coalition, Mr Godwin Edime, said this at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday while reading the group’s position letter addressed to the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole.
Edime, who described the Coalition as consisting of young and loyal aspirants of the ruling party, said that they endorsed the indirect primaries approved by the party’s NWC for governorship primaries in kogi.
“As young and loyal aspirants, we stand unshakably for the indirect primaries earlier approved for us by our party. “Neither NEC nor even the NWC has issued a contrary directive to any state chapter after the adoption and approval of modes of primaries.
“Guided by the foregoing many of us here have gone to great costs in networking delegates and it is absolutely unacceptable for anyone to move the goalpost now.
“Let it be known that we will go to every legal extent to resist any attempt to single Kogi APC out for the imposition of the expensive and unworkable Direct Primaries,” he said.
According to him, the Kogi chapter of APC today is vastly different from the same party in 2015 because it has grown from less than 100,000 members in 2015 to over 500,000 in 2019.
“The direct primaries will take too much time, money and logistics to produce a clean and uncontested membership register between now and Aug. 29, 2019.
“Even if that impossible feat is achieved, we simply cannot organise trouble-free Direct Primaries for at least half a million people.
“Anybody can obtain our party card from anywhere and cause legal trouble,” the Coalition chairman said.
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According to him, the Kogi chapter of APC has always adopt indirect primaries and it has always worked for it.
Edime recalled that in 2015, indirect primaries produced late Abubakar Audu as APC’s governorship candidate.
“In 2019, indirect primaries gave us two out of three senators, seven out of nine House of Representatives members and 25 out of 25 State House of Assembly members.
“The APC must not give room for people to tag it confused or inconsistent by changing established norms to fit every wind of opposition which blows.
“The legal effects could be catastrophic. Except for a few recently elected officials, delegates for Kogi APC chapter Indirect Primaries on Aug. 29 are the same people who voted at the National Convention for the President as our flag-bearer in the 2019 General Elections.
“They also voted for our National and State Assembly contingents at the various primaries. We must beware of those who now want to impugn the integrity and legality of our delegates.
“The domino effect of undermining the legality of our delegates will be catastrophic beyond just the forthcoming governorship election in Kogi state,” he said. (NAN)