APC’s Decision on Direct Primary for Edo Governorship Illegal, Says Former National Vice Chairman

The former National Vice Chairman, North-west of the APC, Dr. Salihu Lukman, has described the decision of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to adopt direct primary election to produce the governorship candidate of APC in Edo State as illegal.

The leadership of the party had last Monday met with Edo APC stakeholders where they agreed to adopt direct primary. The ruling party scheduled the primary election for February 17.

However, Lukman in a statement, maintained that the decision of the NWC was a clear usurpation of the powers of the National Executive Committee (NEC).

“The recent decision by the APC National Working Committee (NWC) regarding the 2024 Edo election, whereby the NWC announced that the party’s candidate will emerge through direct primary may be informed by the strong desire of party leaders to manipulate the process,” he said.

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Lukman maintained that the decision of the NWC to organise direct primary contradicted provisions of Article 13.4(iv) of the APC constitution, which only empowers the NWC to ‘propose electoral guidelines and regulations governing the conduct of elections to party offices at all levels, and procedure for selecting party candidates for elective offices …to the National Executive Committee.

The party chieftain noted that there were already media reports alleging that APC stakeholders in Edo State had decided to limit the number of aspirants for the primary.

“We must appeal to our leaders, including Comrade Adams Oshiomhole not to be carried away by the aura of being today’s rulers and conduct themselves in the same mode previous rulers of Nigeria conducted themselves,” he said.

He emphasised that the debate around direct or indirect primary had been a constant issue in APC since 2014, stressing that part of the experience was that aspiring politicians and godfathers continued to impose their preferences.