Abia State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday adopted direct primaries as the process of choosing their 2019 elective officers.
Hon. Donatus Nwankpa addressing journalists at the end of a meeting of the party’s State Working Committee and aspirants of various positions in the party said that the party adopted the direct primary to avoid imposition and rancour capable of truncating the party’s chances in the elections.
Nwankpa said that “based on the veritable facts available to us we have decided to make things open through direct primaries in Abia for the purpose of allowing the grassroots and members of the party to choose those who will fly their flags.”
According to him, “the party has refused to allow few persons to determine those who will fly its flag in the coming elections,” adding, “we have done this to assess the strength of the party in our various localities and wards.”
The chairman also said that the direct primaries would be used as a test run to access the party’s level of preparedness for the elections, adding “we don’t have any preferred candidate, there is no anointed aspirant, for us we want the people to decide.”
Nwankpa explained that the “reason a lot of people left other parties to join APC was because they were angered by the impunity going on and because they were taken for granted, and we don’t want anyone to be taken for granted,” he added.
“we allowed the aspirants to take the decision, they moved the motion, they seconded the motion, we are only guided their decision,” he said
He also said that the party was not in disagreement with the national secretariat over the method to be used for the primaries saying that the leadership of the party had been clear on the process to be used including direct, indirect and consensus methods.
Also speaking,one of the governorship aspirants, Dr Uche Ogah, said they were satisfied with the arrangement adding that it would give the candidates and the party the opportunity to test their popularity.
