Ekiti Election: Group Calls For Fresh APC Primaries, Demand Withdrawal Of Al-Makura

Nasarawa State Governor, Tanko Al-Makura (File Photo)

Ekiti APC Primaries:  Aggrieved Members Demand Withdrawal Of  Gov Tanko Al-Makura Of Adamawa From Primaries.

Twenty-seven out of the thirty-three All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirants in Ekiti State have asked for the withdrawal of the Governor Tanko Al-Makura  of Nasarawa  from the governorship primary committee in the state.

Gov. Al-Makura was accused of been biased and incompetent in the conduct of the botched congresses.

The aspirants maintained that the shoddy way the committee handled the primary polls caused the violence that marred the exercise in Ado-Ekiti on Saturday.

In a communiqué read by Mojisola, Yaya-Kolade, one of the aspirants, after a marathon meeting in Ado-Ekiti on Sunday, the 27 regretted the unfortunate incident that led to the protest and subsequent disruption of the primary.

They alleged that members of the congress committee headed by Nasarawa State governor, Al-Makura, compromised the integrity of the poll, which invalidated its outcome.

The aggrieved aspirants said they noticed lopsidedness and bias on the part of a member of the committee, calling on the national leadership to straighten all rough edges for the poll to be successful when rerun.

“We want the committee to be disbanded completely and our National Working Committee (NWC) should set up a new committee to conduct another primary that will meet international standard.

“Even many of those in the panel were friends to a particular candidate, and this we thought could vitiate the outcome of the election.

“We are determined to win Ekiti, but the right thing must be done for a candidate that will command the respect of everybody to emerge,” they added.

When a system is disrupted, it becomes invalid. An invalid primary can’t produce a valid candidate. We want to have a credible election, so that the electorate will be able to vote for us at the main election.

“With what happened, we believe sincerely that the committee is culpable and the security agencies are compromised. So some people allowed the thugs that disrupted the election in.”

Naija News understands that the party does not have a luxury of time in the conduct of its primaries as it has until May 14 to present its candidate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).