Forty-three aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bauchi State have called on the National Working Committee of the party to order fresh primary elections in eleven state constituencies.
Spokesperson of the aspirants, Saleh A Umar Nabayi, made the call during a press conference held at the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Bauchi.
Read Also: 2023: Bauchi gov set to reclaim PDP ticket after candidate withdraws from race
They expressed fear that the already elected local government delegates that will partake in the election are already being compromised, therefore, the NWC should order a fresh election of the LG delegates or allow for a direct primary election.
He said “We are here before you to express to the National Working Committee and the entire world about our grievances –particularly concerning our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bauchi State.
“You will recall that the State Assembly primary election has been done but we believe that it has not been concluded.
“Before you this afternoon, are about 44 loyal party members of the APC who lawfully purchased nomination/expression of interest forms to contest for various state House of Assembly seats.
“These are our reasons: our party did not inform any aspirant that any of the serving members will be given an automatic ticket
“We all obtained forms as required by the Constitution and followed all the instructions given by our leaders, we canvassed for support across our constituencies and patiently waited for the day of primary election.
“The election was slated for Thursday, we sent our agents to the party secretariat, they were waiting but sadly election materials were not distributed to the officials till dusk without any communication from the election panel.
“When they arrived late in the evening, they said that they could not distribute the materials that same Thursday, claiming that some of the constituencies in Bauchi State are far away from the capital so they pleaded with us that everyone should reconvene on Friday at 7am when the election materials would be distributed.
“We all left for our various destinations and returned on Friday morning. On that Friday, we were surprised to hear from the committee that all the state constituencies that have serving lawmakers have been given automatic tickets, therefore there won’t be an election in those areas”, he further stated.
He said “We expressed our anger to them that we are not in support of that arrangement. We insisted that elections must be held in all the state constituencies –including those with serving members”.
He explained that, “The State Chairman pleaded with us that we should meet the following Saturday, though, he was not at the meeting but he was represented by his deputy. They promised to forward our complaint to Abuja. At the same time, we discussed this with the current APC gubernatorial candidate, Ambassador Abubakar Sadique Baba who promised to intervene in the matter for possible solution”.
The eleven affected State Constituencies are: Toro/Jama’a and Lame in Toro Local Government; Burra State Constituency in Ningi Local Government; Ganjuwa East in Ganjuwa LGA and Giade Constituency in Giade LGA.
