Old Stakeholders of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Ebonyi State have called on the national leadership to6 organise direct primaries for the state to save and give the party victory in the 2023 general election.
According to the stakeholders that called themselves Legacy APC members, said only the intervention of the party leadership will save the APC which they laboured to build from destruction in the state as genuine members have been rendered docile out of fear and dread for the governor’s highhandedness.
The leader of the stakeholders, Alhaji Haroun Ajah, made this known during a press conference in Abakaliki.
Ajah, also alleged that Governor David Umahi has continued to shun entreaties to follow the path of civility and fairness when he sidelined the legacy members of the party and adopted those who joined him in APC in the last two years as candidates for the 2023 general election.
He, however, calls on leaders of the party to intervene and save Ebonyi APC which according to him is near comatose.
His words ”We, the legacy and loyal members of APC in Ebonyi State also want the national leadership of APC to intervene to ensure that the party, which we laboured to build is not destroyed.
“We have been trying to make the governor see reasons and imbibe democratic ethos in the running of APC in Ebonyi State, but Governor Umahi has continued to shun entreaties to follow the path of civility and fairness.
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“The situation in Ebonyi State APC is that while the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is bubbling with activities in readiness for the election, APC is in near-comatose as genuine members have been rendered docile out of fear and dread for the governor’s highhandedness.
“While there are over 12 governorship aspirants in PDP and between 2 and 3 contestants in every constituency, APC has only four governorship aspirants against the nine we had in 2019. This further shows how the party in Ebonyi has shrunk under the leadership of Governor Umahi. Yet the governor ordered the governorship aspirants to reach out to the party executives, insisting that the aspirants can only get to the executives at their individual constituencies.”
The Stakeholders also vowed never to allow the governor to impose an embattled Speaker of the state House of Assembly Francis Nwifuru as candidate for them.
“In the light of these obvious efforts by the governor to impose his preferred candidate on Ebonyi State APC, we use this opportunity to plead with our national leaders to ensure that direct primaries are organized for aspirants in the state.
“We believe that only a direct primary where the aspirants would test their popularity could restore the confidence of APC members in the party’s candidates and not the choice of one man who wants to pitch Ebonyi APC against the people,” he said.
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Only direct primaries will save APC from total collapse in Ebonyi ― Old APC stakeholders
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