APC Aspirants Kick against Adoption of Indirect Primary in Katsina

By Francis Sardauna in Katsina

The brewing crisis within the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Katsina State over the mode of primaries to be adopted in electing its candidates for the 2019 general election, took a new dimension on Friday, as some aggrieved members of the party under the auspices of Katsina APC Aspirants rejected the adoption of indirect primaries by the stakeholders in the state.

The APC forum, which comprises two governorship, three senatorial, 11 House of Representatives, 31 state Assembly aspirants, said it would not accept any process other than the direct primaries in selecting those that will represent the party during the 2019 elections.

The state chapter of the party Thursday, after a two-hour meeting with critical stakeholders, including Governor Aminu Bello Masari, “unanimously” adopted indirect primaries as its mode of election to pick candidates in the forthcoming polls.

In a statement issued to newsmen in Katsina on Friday by its Chairman, Mallam Abubakar Isma’ila Isa, the forum reaffirmed that direct primary remained the most transparent and

credible process of selecting popular and acceptable candidates for the party.

It read in parts: “In Katsina state we have unanimously rejected any process other than the direct primaries in selecting those that will represent the party at the election.

“The so-called executive members of the party at all levels in Katsina state were illegally elected in a phantom congress of the party which is now sub judice before many high courts and the federal high court in Katsina State and therefore ineligible to take decisions on behalf of the party and its members.”

Members of the forum, who claimed to be loyalists of President Muhammadu Buhari, said: “There was never a stakeholders’ meeting of the party where it was agreed that the party in Katsina State should go contrary to the well known views of our dear President who is an advocate of the direct primaries of the party.

“We are solidly behind the president and the National Working Committee (NWC) in supporting the Direct Primaries in choosing candidates that will carry the party’s flag in the 2019 elections.

“We hold the view that as a mark of respect for our president we will never shame him by going contrary to his views. We call on all those concern to intervene and save the party from the merchants of manipulation and disunity”.