The chairman of the committee responsible for ruling APC, Mala Buni, warned the governorship candidates of the party in Ondo not to dictate its primary mode.
The primary APC shall be held in Ondo State on 20 July.
Eleven of the 12 candidates for governorship had, in a letter addressed to Mr Buni, who is the governor of the Yobe State and head of the Extraordinary National Convention Committee, rejected the adoption by the body of an indirect primary mode.
They called for a direct method of electing who emerges as the party ‘s ultimate candidate for governor.
The direct primary mode involves the participation of all party members in the selection of party candidates, while the indirect primary mode involves the use of the delegates.
In the indirect vote, party representatives at local levels, government appointees as well as elected officials elect the candidates. This approach gives the incumbent an advantage over the other candidates in the political race.
In his address at the inauguration of the Ondo State Primary Election and Appeals Committees at the APC Secretariat in Abuja on Friday, Mr. Buni said that the party would not change its mind.
He said the “party is also carefully avoiding issues with the tendency of creating disaffection, animosity and division to reignite fresh crisis within its fold.”
Vouching on the two newly inaugurated committees headed by the governor of Kogi, Yahaya Bello, and Chris Ibe, the governor of Yobe appealed to the troubled aspirants to maintain peace and to demand justice at the primary level.
“I am convinced that these reliable ladies and gentlemen will be fair, transparent, impartial and upright to do justice to all the aspirants in the course of their assignments.
“As a party with great respect for internal democracy, we must appreciate and honour the popular choice for us to have a marketable candidate to be presented to the electorate during the election. There is no doubt; we are committed to renewing the mandate from the good people of Ondo State,” he said at the event.
“I wish to caution our aspirants to respect the rules governing the party primary,” Mr Buni added.
Reiterating the stance of Mr Buni, Mr Bello, the chairman of the Ondo primary election committee, said ”it is not the place of aspirants to dictate the mode of primary in a party’s governorship election but that of the party.”
“I was a contestant myself before. It is not for aspirants to dictate for the party the rules of the game,” he told journalists in an interview shortly after the inauguration.
As stipulated in Sections 13 and 20 of the APC Constitution, the party’s national body, temporarily represented by Mr Buni ‘s committee, is empowered to determine the primary method to be used in the selection of the party’s candidates for governorship.
