The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday said it would conduct a fresh primary election ahead of the July 14 governorship poll in Ekiti on Friday.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Malam Bolaji Abudulahi, made this known to newsmen in Abuja.
He said that the decision was taken after the party´s leadership had studied the report on last Saturday inconclusive primary submitted by its committee chairman, Gov. Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa state.
The primary election was characterised by violence, a development described by Abudullahi as ‘quite condemnable’.
He disclosed that identified unruly agents that participated in that primary had been disqualified from participating in the rescheduled election as agents.
“Accordingly, the following individuals are hereby disqualified from participating as agents or partaking in the rescheduled primary in whatever capacity.
“They are Ayodeji Omowaye, Rotimi Falaye, Kayode Afolabi, Oladele Ademola Samuel, Oyetunde Ojo, Akintade Olayisade and Temitope Adewumi,” he said.
Abudullahi said that in the fresh primary election, all agent´s tags must bear the names of the aspirants they represented and that they would be barred from going to the voting arena with their mobile phones.
He also said that security agents from other states would be mobilised to secure the venue and officials in the rescheduled election.
According to him, henceforth, one person would be appointed subject to the consensus of all aspirants to assist persons with disability and illiterate voters.
“All aspirants must not leave their sitting positions unless with the approval of the primary election committee; aspirants would be held liable for the conduct of their agents.
“The previous exercise is hereby cancelled and the primary will start afresh at the same venue on Friday, May 11, 2018.
“Existing primary committee is maintained, except the secretary who will now be substituted,” he said.
He explained that though there was no evidence that the committee’s secretary compromised in any way, almost all the aspirants complained that he had close relationship with one of the aspirants.
This, Abdullahi said, could compromise the secretary’s ability to be objective and fair to all concerned.
“It is to that extent that we believe that to be on the safer side and to protect the integrity of the process, we should probably excuse him and bring in someone else,” he stated.
He maintained that all those found culpable, directly or indirectly of disrupting the primary would be punished in accordance with the relevant provisions of the party´s Constitution.
The spokesman also said that the party´s leadership would look into the allegations that an aspirant bribed some delegates, adding that it would act on the development once a formal report was received.
