The All Progressive Congress (APC) Benue in Ben State has adopted indirect primaries in selecting candidates for the 2019 general election.
The decision was taken at the APC State Executive Committee (SEC) meeting which held Sunday in Makurdi.
The decision was however rejected by one time senatorial aspirants for Zone C, Mr. Daniel Onjeh.
Onjeh had contested in 2015 against current Senator David Mark but lost.
Onjeh said he would prefer that the Direct method be used as the Zone C register was up to date and still intact.
According to him, indirect method would be tasking and would involve a lot of money as the party was not buoyant enough to sponsor many people.
Onjeh’s suggestion was however over-ruled immediately.
The APC State Chairman, Mr Abba Yaro, at the meeting said that direct primaries would not be possible in the state because of the absence of a comprehensive membership register.
Yaro added that the decision was reached after due consultation with the party’s stakeholders in the state and National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.
He said: “The Benue working committee wishes to state that the SEC has adopted indirect primary as the mode of conduct of the party primary elections in the state.
READ ALSO: PDP, APC are exclusive clubs of the rich –SPN
“Direct primary method is not applicable in the state, due to absence of a comprehensive register of party members.”
In his contribution, the State Organising Secretary, Mr Mark Hanmation, added that the data of party members were last accredited in 2004.
“The APC Benue leadership has made spirited attempts to acquire a credible database of party members but all efforts have proven abortive.
“Without a credible membership register, any direct primaries may be disrupted by non-members or even individuals from other parties who may come up with fake membership cards to cause confusion in the process.”
He added that the direct primary method would present significant logistics challenges for the party.
He said the decision would be appropriately communicated to the National Executive Committee of the party as required by law.
The Next Edition also reports that party stalwart and other stakeholders all passed a vote confidence on Sen. George Akume as its party leader in the state.
The vote of confidence followed a motion moved by a member of House of Representatives, representing Gboko/Tarka Federal Constituency, John Dyegh and seconded by Barrister John Ochoga from Ben he South Senatorial District.
Moving the motion, Hon. Dyegh extolled Akume’s quality leadership saying “because of his wonderful leadership the APC dethroned a ruling party in 2015.
“Having led APC well starting from the days of ACN to APC, I move that the Benue APC pass a vote of confidence on Sen. George Akume.”
They said Benue remained an APC party and would vote for President Buhari any day.
