Edo 2024: Ganduje can’t impose direct primary on aspirants —Lukman

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A former member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committee (NWC), Salihu Lukman, has cautioned the Abdullahi Umar Ganduje-led national leadership against the adoption of the direct mode of primary to produce candidate for the party ahead of the September Edo state governorship election.

Lukman gave the caution in a statement, “Challenges of Democratising Political Parties,” issued at the weekend in Abuja.

The party primary to produce its standard-bearer for the election has been fixed for February 3.

By virtue of the APC Constitution, its candidates for any general elections could emerge through direct, indirect primary or consensus.

Lukman however noted that the APC has no valid membership register and the adoption of direct primary could be open to abuse by certain individuals, determined to foist their favoured choice as candidate.

“Issues of maintaining verifiable membership register is a condition precedent for the conduct of direct primary by any political party.

“Experiences under APC is that direct primary is being conducted without a verifiable membership register, which empowers party leaders to simply write results in favour of aspirants they want to emerge as candidates for elections.

“Once that is the case, winning elections will hardly be about winning the votes of the electorate. The same logic that is applied to produce candidates, which is manipulating results of primary will be used during the elections. Campaigns will be weakly committed to winning the support of the electorates,” he stated.

He also maintained that the Ganduje-led National Working Committee could not solely adopt direct primary without recourse to another statutory organ of the party, the National Executive Committee, for the latter organ to approve it.

He claimed: “The recent decision by the APC National Working Committee (NWC) regarding the 2024 Edo election, whereby the NWC announced that the party’s candidate will emerge through direct primary may be informed by the strong desire of party leaders to manipulate the process.

“Already, there are media reports alleging that APC stakeholders in Edo State have decided to limit the number of aspirants for the primary.”

Meanwhile, Labour Party (LP) aspirants looking ahead to its February 22 Edo governorship primary, on Sunday, rejected the N30 million charged as fees for Expression of Interest and nomination forms.

One of the aspirants, UK-based financial analyst, Dr Egbe Omorodion, told newsmen in Benin, that all governorship aspirants had rejected the bid and convened a meeting for Monday, to take a stand on the matter.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that LP had on January 16, announced a N30 million fee for nomination and expression of interest forms for aspirants vying for the governorship office in the September 21 election.

The Julius Abure-led National Working Committee (NWC) announced this during its meeting in Abuja.

The NWC further said the commencement of the sale and submission of the forms would be between January 25 and February 11.

It, however, exempted female aspirants from paying for the expression of interest form.

The national leadership of the party also said it would adopt the indirect primary on Feb. 22, to choose its party flag bearer for the governorship poll.

But Omorodion appealed to the national leadership for a reduction of the fee, describing it as outrageous.

According to him, “I, as an aspirant, am saying that this amount is outrageously ridiculous.

” I see the move as a strategy to stifle the voices of those who joined LP with genuine desire to serve Edo people.

“If the party’s leadership reduced the fee to N15 million for Imo election, why can’t it do same for Edo election?”

Omorodion said: ” My appeal is that I don’t think my voice and those of others who believe in my project should be muted by this huge amount.

“A good number of aspirants and supporters may become disgruntled and may just take a walk if the party leadership refuses to budge.”

Omorodion, who is the LP Chairman, UK chapter, said his voice and those of numerous supporters might become stifled if the party’s leadership refused to rescind its decision.

The aspirant described himself as eminently qualified to take Edo out of economic quagmire.

He added: “Edo people may be denied the opportunity of my dream and desires to take the state to the next level.”

” Yes, other aspirants are also dissatisfied with the fee. We will be meeting on Monday.

“Hopefully, we will be able to come up with a position on the matter,” he said.

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