Oshiomhole, other APC leaders under pressure to adopt direct primary for Kogi elections

Following the heated argument and protest that trail the decision of the All Progressives Congress to adopt indirect primary for the August 29 governorship primary in Kogi State, the national leadership is under pressure to reverse the decision.

No fewer than 20 governorship aspirants of the APC had on Monday protested against the decision, saying it would affect the fortunes of the party in the state, citing the litigation over the State Working Committee.

It was learnt that the topic was the centre of discussion among members of the National Working Committee who met on Wednesday in Abuja.

The meeting, which took place at the national secretariat of the party, was presided over by the National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole.

Confiding in The Punch, a member of the NWC said on Wednesday that, “We are wary of the development because we don’t want a repeat of the Zamfara State experience where the party lost all its elective offices to the Peoples Democratic Party due to a judgment of the Supreme Court that invalidated our primary.

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“The decision is undergoing a review and we may come out with an option that will accommodate all interest groups within the party. The direct primary may be the way out but no decision has been taken yet.”

Also speaking, another member of the NWC said, “These are men who have paid their dues in the public sphere and politics, so we can’t just ignore their complaints.

“We felt it was important we look at the issues they raised on their merit. We are going to seek a legal review on the case said to be in court as to how it could affect the party.”

But the APC National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, said the party’s decision is still the same at the moment.

“The decision on the indirect primary was due to a choice made by the state executives in a correspondence to the national secretariat. We only acted on that,” he said.

Acknowledging the receipt of the petition, Issa-Onilu said it would look at the merit of the petitions in line with the party’s constitution and come out with a position in due course.

“We assure all concerned parties that the NWC would be guided only by our rules,” he said.