National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Nentawe Yilwatda, has said that there were no imposition of candidates in the party’s primary elections.
The party’s national Chairman stated this on Arise News on Monday while reacting to concerns that what the party has adopted as consensus politics could push the APC towards implosion.
He explained, “In the entire 36 states, we had 29 governors that were going either returning back or new people contesting for governorship in their states. We had only three consensus candidates for governorship.
“All the rest went for direct primaries. There were no impositions because anytime we did, allow the law to run.
“Where consensus cannot come, you go for direct primaries. We created a consensus form. The consensus form allows all the aspirants to sign before consensus takes place. So, where there’s consensus, any state, all the aspirants must have signed. That’s number one.
“Number two, there are states that we had people appealing, that’s why we delayed some of the elections, that’s why some elections were even delayed for two to three days before we conducted them, because people now appealed that there were foul play, so we now shifted the election and made sure we conducted them later.
“Then we had appeal committees, and people were allowed to also appeal the process…”
This assertion comes despite the considerable internal strife generated by the APC’s primary elections nationwide.
DAILY POST reports that controversies have consistently revolved around issues such as candidate imposition, allegations of electoral misconduct, violence, and the exclusion of stakeholders.
Furthermore, the consensus method has frequently faced strong opposition, with dissatisfied aspirants voicing concerns that the process lacks transparency and excludes popular candidates.
