One-time national chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Barnabas Gemade, former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mike Aondoakaa, and two others have petitioned the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the party’s governorship primary in Benue State.
The other petitioners are Mathias Byuan and Professor Terhemba Shija.
This is coming as another governorship aspirant and one-time Minister of State for Niger Delta, Sam Ode, who came a distant third in the primary said he had accepted the result of the primary.
It will be recalled that the Benue State chapter of APC held its governorship and state assembly primaries last Friday, May 27, 2022, using the direct primary mode where the suspended Catholic priest, Hyacinth Alia, was declared the winner with a wide margin.
At the appeal panel held at the party secretariat in Makurdi on Monday, the petitioners described the process as an aberration, saying that the primaries did not hold and called for outright cancellation.
Gemade in his submission said: “We are all members of this party and we really want it to become a winning party, not just an opposition party and the only way it may become a winning party here is if things are done properly and there is still a window to do things properly now that INEC has extended the time to 6th & 7th of May.”
Also, Aondoakaa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) called for justice and argued that there should be free, fair and transparent APC primaries, emphasising that they have been funding the party and cannot be treated shabbily.
Chairperson of the Appeals Panel, Princess Uzoama Onyema, expressed displeasure and promised that the panel would do justice to their petition.
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Meanwhile, Ode in a statement he personally signed and made available to newsmen on Tuesday, said: “I wish to extend my sincerest congratulations to Very Revd. Fr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia, Ph.D on his successful outing at the just concluded governorship primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State and subsequent nomination as the candidate of our great party.”
He added that “the victory acknowledged your acceptability by members of the APC family and wish to state here that I, Hon. Barr. Sam Ode, mni, has accepted the result of the APC governorship primary election in the state as officially announced by the Governorship Primary Election Committee.
“I, therefore, align myself with your decisive and resounding victory. I am confident that the emergence of Very Revd. Fr. Hyacinth Alia as the candidate of our great party will rekindle the hope of the common man in the Benue Project and encourage Benue voters to overwhelmingly elect the candidate of the APC as the next governor of the state come 2023.”
Ode appreciated his supporters across the 23 local government areas of the state and called on other aspirants to come together to imbibe unity of purpose and determination so as to forestall the challenges of the general election in 2023.
and then