Ebonyi APC, Delta Faction Adopt Direct Primary Election

Benjamin Nworie in Abakaliki and Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba

The Ebonyi State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has adopted the use of direct primary for all elective offices in the 2019 general elections.

Also, a faction of the party in Delta State led by the party’s 2015 governorship candidate, Olorogun Otega Emerhor, and party chieftain, Chief Hyacinth Enuha, has expressed support for the adoption of direct primary in Delta State.

The party noted that with the controversies surrounding the just concluded wards, local government and state congresses across the country, it was expedient to use direct primary to avoid litigations.

In a statement issued yesterday, the state chairman of the party, Dr. Sylvester Nwambe disclosed that the decision was reached after the meeting of the state executive committee, stakeholders and aspirants to various offices held at the APC Secretariat in Abakaliki.

The chairman said that it was in line with the party’s directives that primary elections into all elective offices shall be by direct primary or otherwise agreed by stakeholders in each state, that Ebonyi State has decided in view of prevailing circumstances, to adopt the mode of direct primary in the state.

He added that the motion for the use of the direct primary was moved by the House of Representatives aspirant for Ohaozara/Onicha/Ivo federal constituency, Mazi Ogbonnaya Onu and seconded by former member House of Representatives and aspirant for Ishielu/Ezza North Federal constituency, Hon. Jonathan Eze.

He said that the state executive committee and stakeholders of the party in the state unanimously agreed to adopt the use of direct primaries into all elective offices in Ebonyi state so as to promote all-inclusive participation, fairness, level playing ground, and eliminate corrupt tendencies usually associated with the indirect system of primary elections.

In a related development, the leaders and elders of APC in Delta State led by the party’s 2015 governorship candidate, Olorogun Otega Emerhor and party chieftain, Chief Hyacinth Enuha, has expressed support for the adoption of direct primary in the state.

In a statement by Mr. Aghogho Abraham Orotomah on behalf of the Media Team, Mainstream Members of Delta State APC and made available to THISDAY in Asaba yesterday, the party leaders and elders also commended the Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee of the party for its decision on direct primary in the election of candidates for the upcoming elections.

They observed that in a democracy, power resides with the people and wondered why any political leader worthy of his salt should shy away from facing the people he claims to represent through direct primary election exercise.

The statement said: “It is no accident that even the advanced democracies from which we copied our presidential model, like the United States, insists on direct primaries in order to give the people a sense of ownership of the process, and the candidates a true sense of being the products of the will of the people.

“It is in this light that we commend the towering wisdom of not only the leadership of the party, but that of our great national leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, who has agreed to subject his own candidacy to direct primaries, as well as the indefatigable Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu and others who have thrown their not inconsiderable weight behind this initiative.”