The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Benue State has stated that it will not bar potential aspirants from vying for positions in the proposed local government election in the state.
The APC stated this in a press statement signed by the Acting State Publicity Secretary, Benue State, James Ornguga, after the Stakeholders Meeting organized by the Benue State Independent Electoral Commission, BSIEC.
The party said fillers from the Stakeholders Meeting suggests that members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP have foreknowledge of the election and its possible outcomes.
But the APC said “our members have gone far in their consultations and it would be unfair stopping them from pursuing their ambitions on our platform at this moment.
“The party is however, suspiciously perturbed with the hasty nature of the electoral guidelines which seem to have been projected for less than three months and preconditioned to favour a certain group.”
He noted that while the aspirants are just accessing copies of the electoral guidelines and timetable on Monday, campaigns are to begin immediately with primaries expected to hold within a very short time frame, like Student Union Elections.
“Besides, there is an indiscriminate use of both “aspirants” and “candidates” on the activity log contained in the issued guidelines, making it difficult for parties to differentiate the two, except returning to the Commission to seek clarifications.
“During the political dispensation when Senator Dr. George Akume was the governor of Benue State, even candidates in the opposition All Peoples Party, APP won chairmanship seats and in most cases, performed better than their counterparts from the ruling PDP.”
The APC said it has no confidence in the process, saying “despite the new BSIEC Chairman as usual, making boasts of his own quantum of integrity, as the PDP administration of Governor Samuel Ortom is not a good keeper of promises, hence, trusting an agency under it would amount to building castles in the air.
“Our conviction is however strong that Mr. Emmanuel Jime, APC Guber Candidate, will soon unseat the current administration at the court and where BSIEC intentionally collaborates with PDP to rig us out, we shall employ available constitutional means to seek redress and have the entire process cancelled when the APC government takes over following the substance of our case before the court;” the statement said.
