Can Yahaya Bello pull through without indirect primaries? Obviously, he is standing alone among all others contenders in the next governorship election. Twenty governorship aspirants on the floor of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have rejected the indirect mode of primary election approved for the state by the party’s national secretariat.
This is coming ahead of the November 16 election in the state.
The aspirants, including former Chairman of the Nigeria Football Association and Alhaji Yusuf Haruna, who is former Aide de Camp of APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, said using the indirect primary would amount to denying them a level-playing ground and denying card-carrying members the opportunity to exercise their rights.
In a letter to the APC National Chairman signed by General Patrick Akpa and Comrade Godwin Egbunu, but read to reporters by Comrade Mohammed Ali, the aspirants claimed that with the indirect primary, the party was setting booby traps for itself.
They said as loyal party members, they would not fold their arms and allow the party to suffer huge political loss arising from the narrow ambition of a “non-performing governor”.
The aspirants expressed concern that the party took the decision to approve indirect primary for the state without consulting with them and other relevant stakeholders, adding that it amounts to giving the state governor, Yahaya Bello, undue advantage.
The aspirants said: “We regret to observe that such decision was taken without adequate consultation with the party’s critical stakeholders, especially the governorship aspirants on the platform and other contending groups in the party’s polarised structure.
“The decision to adopt an indirect primary by the NWC is fraught with severe implications.”