February 02, (THEWILL) – The National leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has constituted the Benue State Governorship Rescheduled Primary Elections Committee, to conduct the governorship rerun of the party in the state.
The party also constituted the Rescheduled Primary Election Appeal Panel to handle any contentious issues that may arise during the election.
Umar Kolo will serve as chairman of the appeal panel, while Dr Kabir Habib and Engr Umar Ibrahim will serve as member and secretary respectively.
The five-man Committee for the election is headed by Senator Basheer Lado, with Baba Liman, Yakubu Adamu and Ahmed Attah, as members, while Margaret Duru is to serve as secretary of the committee.
Meanwhile, the APC in Benue State said twelve aspirants would be filing out for the governorship rerun billed to be held in 137 council wards of the 11 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state which the rerun is to hold on Thursday.
The State Organising Secretary, James Ornguga, disclosed this while fielding questions from newsmen in Makurdi, shortly after receiving the Chairman and members of the rescheduled primary elections Committee at the APC secretariat on Thursday.
He explained that initially, 13 aspirants contested during the primary election proper, adding that one of the aspirants has defected to the Labour Party (LP).
Corroborating, the State chairman of the party, Austin Agada, explained that some of the aspirants have declared their intentions to withdraw from the contest and support Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia to emerge a winner.
He, however, pointed out that even though the party’s national secretariat had accepted their decision, it requested the affected aspirants to declare their intentions to withdraw from the race in writing.
The chairman, who appreciated members of the party for keeping the faith all those while, assured members in the affected Local government areas that he was in touch with all the stakeholders for the election, adding that adequate security has been provided by the relevant security agencies and the electoral body for the safety and hitch-free exercise.
Earlier, Senator Basheer Lado, Chairman of the five-man Committee saddled with the responsibility of conducting the rerun primaries in the state said elections would be conducted in 137 wards of the 11 LGAs of the state.
Lado, who was represented by a member of the Committee, Baba Liman, noted that the elections would be by direct primaries.
The Committee Chairman prayed to God to help the party conduct the election so that they would complete their task in the shortest possible time; expressing hope that the Committee would announce the election results by midnight Thursday.
It will be recalled that the Federal Appeal Court sitting in Makurdi, Benue state, a couple of days back nullified primaries conducted by the party in 11 council wards of the state and ordered for a rerun within 14 days.
One of the Governorship aspirants, Professor Terhemba Shija, had approached the Court challenging the legitimacy of the exercise that returned Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, as the flag bearer in this month’s general election.
It is not clear at the moment if Shija, Michael Aonodakaa and Barnabas Gemade, who are aggrieved will be participating in today’s rerun exercise.
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