Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole will lead a seven-man committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at its governorship primary in Bayelsa State.This is coming as the party’s leadership shifted the date from Saturday, September 19 to Tuesday, September 22.in a statement yesterday in Abuja by its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Timi Frank, APC said the postponement was a directive from the party’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.
The statement reads: “I am directed to inform the Bayelsa State executive committee of the APC, all APC governorship aspirants and all our teaming members and supporters in the state that the governorship primary earlier scheduled for Saturday, September 19, will hold on Tuesday, September 22.
“The venue and time for the exercise remain unchanged. All inconveniences are regretted please.”
Some of the committee’s members expressed concerns about their safety because of what they called the volatile security in Bayelsa.
A member of the committee, Chinedu Eluemunoh, raised the issue and the likelihood of violence during the primary.
He said: “We are worried about the volatile environment where the primary will take place. We hope that tight security will be provided in the course of discharging our duties.”
But APC’s National Organising Secretary, Senator Osita Izunaso, who inaugurated the committee, assured that tight security was in place to ensure a hitch-free and transparent primary at the Samson Siasia Stadium venue of the primary in Yenogoa, the state capital.
Izunaso said the Bayelsa Police Command and the State Security Service (SSS) would ensure the protection of life and property during and after the primary.
He said the delegates would be identified by their “permanent voters cards (PVCs), international passport and national identity cards”.
According to him, no other means of identity should be accepted by the committee members to identify the delegates.
Izunaso urged the committee members to forward any petition that might come to their table after the primary to the appeal committee, which he said would be set up before the end of the election.
The committee’s secretary, Senator Ishaq Salman, who spoke on behalf of Oshiomhole, said the chairman would ensure a free, fair and credible primary.
