Despite the nationwide campaign by the All Progressives Congress, APC national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole for direct primaries in the selection of its party’s candidates, the Edo State chapter of the party has settled for long primaries, Vanguard has learned.
The governor of the state, Mr Godwin Obaseki had preferred consensus which he had earlier deployed to pick candidates for the recently held local government election.
Some party it was also gathered preferred the consensus option as they believed that it would be less rancorous and also cited the absence of comprehensive voters register to determine the actual number of registered voters in the party. A state caucus meeting called late Sunday eventually settled for long primaries in nominating its candidates in the coming elections, but Vanguard gathered that the caucus members appealed to the state APC secretariat to see how it can update the membership register to enable them use it for the presidential primaries.
A total number of 71 persons that make up the caucus were invited for the meeting which was attended by over 85 per cent of the total number. The caucus is expected to meet with the State Working Committee, SWC, of the party today and then come out with an official position on the decision for indirect primaries which would then be communicated to the national secretariat as directed by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party in its recent meeting.
A member of the caucus told Vanguard yesterday that “The meeting went well, we are meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) to decide, no consensus. We will meet with the SWC (State Working Committee) to decide whether we will do direct or indirect but they made it clear to us that there is no updated membership registration so we might opt for indirect primaries because there is no comprehensive register.
The National Chairman addressed us; the governor addressed us, and the state chairman addressed us.” Confirming the development, the state secretary of the party, Lawrence Okah said on the phone that “We are meeting tomorrow (Today) again to deliberate on it, there is not much issue on it. We will meet then come out with an official position.”
Source:Vanguard
