APC NWC ambushes  aggrieved aspirants, draws candidates’ list for submission to INEC

Amidst gale of protests trailing the outcome of the All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries to select candidates for the forthcoming general elections, the leadership of the party may have tactically pulled  the rug off the feet of aggrieved aspirants.

Nigerian Tribune checks revealed that the APC National Working Committee has since submitted the list of its candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

A party source privy to the development revealed that the NWC took the decision at the end of its meeting last week, ostensibly to ward off pressures from aspirants who have secured assurances from influential figures in government to ensure that the party reversed outcomes of the processes in some states.

Inestigating by the Nigerian Tribune checks revealed that the ruling party national secretariat had in the course of the congresses gave instructions to those saddled with the supervision of the elections, not to announce results until final ratification by the Professor Nentawe Yilwatda-led NWC.

While the directive was, however, observed in breaches in states which announced winners of primaries for Governorship and National Assembly seats, particularly in state chapters that adopted consensus option, most states submitted the list of aspirants who emerged victorious to the National Secretariat.

Apparently relying on the pronouncement of the party’s national secretariat on formal pronouncement of the outcome of the primary, former Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who lost the Oyo State governorship ticket to Senator Sarafadeen Ali had declared that no one should lay claim to the governorship ticket in the state until a formal pronouncement from the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.

The erstwhile power minister, in a statement last week, maintained that “no individual or group at the state level had been authorised to announce the final outcome of the primaries.”

He insisted that only the party’s national headquarters could make such a declaration.

The party has, however, been silent on formal announcements of candidates who are anxious to collect Certificates of Return.

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While addressing protesters, who stormed the party national secretariat last Thursday, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda told newsmen that results of the primaries would be released after the outcome of the findings of the appeal panels.

The party source who confided in Nigerian Tribune revealed that the National Chairman of the party and certain national officers have been at receiving end of what he called “overwhelming pressures”.

He said: ”The results of the primaries have been submitted to INEC. The NWC took that decision as a result of disturbing signals from certain quarters.

“I am sure that you listened to the remarks of the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, who assured his colleagues who lost return tickets that their case would be looked into! Is he saying tickets would be retrieved from those who won legitimately and given to those that their constituents had rejected?”

Asked if the NWC discountenanced the petitions filed by aggrieved aspirants before the appeal panels, the source declared that the petitions were looked into.

“Who told you that the petitions were ignored? The appeal panels sat in the states and submitted their reports to the National Secretatiat. The NWC doesn’t have to place its recommendations in the public space,” the source argued.

He further revealed that President Bola Tinubu was taken into confidence before the APC National Chairman submitted list of candidates to INEC.