No Parallel Guber Primary in C’River, Says APC

• Affirms Owan-Enoh as candidate

Bassey Inyang In Calabar

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has stated that its records concerning the conduct of its gubernatorial primary election in Cross River State indicates that there was no parallel governorship primary in the state, hence Senator John Owan-Enoh is its governorship candidate.

A faction of the party in the state had last Sunday returned the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Uguru Usani, as its governorship candidate ahead of the 2019 general election in a parallel governorship primary election.

However, the following day, another governorship primary election was conducted under the supervision of a committee nominated by the APC National Working Committee (NWC) and the results announced on Tuesday, which indicated that Owan-Enoh won the direct primary conducted in all the 196 wards in the state by polling 82,272 votes to defeat four other candidates.

Putting the records straight before departing the state, the committee headed by Ali Magashi said it does not have any knowledge of any parallel APC governorship primary that held in the state, adding that Usani is not the APC stansard-bearer in the state.
Magashi said if any such primary election held, it was unknown to the party, and therefore illegal as far as the party’s rules and regulations for the nomination of its governorship candidates across the country were concerned.

Addressing journalists at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport Sunday before departing the state after a week-long election exercise, Magashi said the seven-member committee was the only body empowered by the PDP NWC in line with its constitution, to conduct primaries for aspirants seeking to fly the party’s flag for various elective positions ahead of the 2019 general election.

Magashi said the committee successfully conducted primaries for the APC in the state and has produced a formidable team of APC candidates for the governorship, National Assembly, and state House of Assembly elections in 2019.

“The exercise was very successful and credible. We are very happy and thankful to God that there was no violence and the governorship candidate, Senator John Owan-Enoh, became one of the first set of candidates of the party across the country that the NWC has approved,” Magashi said.

He dismissed the validity of the purported parallel exercise conducted by a group of persons who bear allegiance to the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Uguru Usani, who equally claimed to have emerged as the standard-bearer of the party in the state.

Magashi admonished party members not to be deceived by anybody or group of persons because the constitution of the party is clear on who is empowered to conduct primaries of the party.