The All Progressives Congress governorship primaries held on Thursday deepened the crises in the party’s state chapters as some factions held parallel congresses while others boycotted the polls entirely.
Some aspirants in Ogun, Lagos, Rivers, and Ebonyi states in separate interviews with The PUNCH, faulted the delegate lists used for the primaries.
While opposing factions in Akwa Ibom State held parallel primaries, aggrieved aspirants and party chieftains boycotted the shadow elections in Rivers, Sokoto and Delta states.
Some of the aspirants threatened legal actions and warned the party against any action that could lead to the nullification of the primaries.
The ruling party is currently battling crises in states including Rivers, Ogun, Oyo, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Osun, and Sokoto where factions are battling for supremacy.
The PUNCH had on May 18 and 19 reported that factions of party in some states rejected the election of delegates for the governorship primaries, alleging that the exercise was hijacked by governors and ministers.
Abe shuns Rivers primary, says exercise skewed, biased, vows to challenge result
Before the commencement of the Rivers State APC primary in Port Harcourt on Thursday, a governorship aspirant, Magnus Abe, who is leading a faction opposed to the one headed by a former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, withdrew from the exercise.
Abe’s ally and former Chief of Staff, Rivers State Government House, Tony Okocha, in a statement, described the process as skewed and biased.
The statement reads, “I have been receiving a myriad of calls from our colleagues concerning the National Assembly and governorship primaries of our darling party, the APC.
“Please kindly take this as an official statement that we are not participating in an already skewed, biased, and prejudiced process in Rivers.”
Later on Thursday evening, Abe denied a report that he had dumped the APC.
He, however, vowed to challenge the outcome of the indirect primary mode adopted by the Amaechi faction.
He stated, “Everybody knows that in a delegate election if you’re not included in how the delegates are chosen; if the process of choosing the delegates is not inclusive; if it is not transparent and not fair, the outcome of what the delegates will do is not expected to be any different from the process that produced them.
“Like I said at the beginning of this whole thing when I declared, I said I will not just accept the outcome of any process that is not just, fair, equitable and inclusive.
“The indirect primary being conducted today (Thursday) by the former Minister of Transportation and his cronies in the APC in Rivers State does not meet that standard.
“ And for that reason, while I have decided not to withdraw out of respect for the party, I want to say clearly that I will not accept the outcome nor will I be bound by it,” Abe stated.
The State APC Publicity Secretary, Chris Finebone, who is in Amaechi’s camp, told The PUNCH on the telephone that Abe’s political sojourn would soon end.
Tonye Cole, a Lagos-based businessman, and ally of Amaechi won the primary. Cole polled a total of 986 votes to defeat Ojukaye Flag Amachree, Seconte Davies, Ibinabo West, and Benrard Mikko, who scored 190, 47, 43 and two to come a distant second, third and fourth respectively.
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