The Ogun state chapter of the All Progressives Congress ( APC ), on Thursday resolved to stay – off direct primary as an alternative mode of selecting party candidates for the 2019 general elections where consensus method fails.
Ogun APC had last September 5 adopted consensus option with a provision that should the method fails, it would resort to Direct primary to pick candidates.
The September 5 decision on consensus was reached at the Stakeholders meeting in Abeokuta, which was attended by governor Ibikunle Amosun, the State Chairman of the party, Chief Derin Adebiyi, State Executive Committee Members, Senator Gbenga Kaka, Senator Lanre Tejuoso, former Deputy Governor Segun Adesegun, some members of the party in the National and State House Assemblies, former legislators as well as party and council Chairmen in the 20 Local Governments among others.
However, in an expanded Executive Committee meeting of the party in the state on Thursday afternoon, it resolved that consensus method still stands but where it proved “impracticable, Indirect mode of primary elections shall be used for the purpose of 2019 general elections.”
In attendance at the expanded executive committee meeting are Deputy Governor, Yetunde Onanuga who represented Governor Ibikunle Amosun, state chairman of APC, Chief Derin Adebiyi, National Financial Secretary, Alh. Tajudeen Bello, immediate past state acting Chairman, Tajudeen Lemboye, the consensus governorship candidate in Ogun, Hon. Abdulkabir Adekunle Akinlade and 108 others.
The motion for the adoption of the Indirect Primary option if consensus method fails, was moved by the Chairman of the party in Sagamu Local Government, Segun Solarin, and seconded by former Deputy Speaker of Ogun Assembly, Hon. Bolanle Gbeleyi, with 109 executive Committee members supporting the motion when it was put to voice vote.
And in a communique issued and signed by the state chairman, Derin Adebiyi, at the end of the meeting, the party predicated parts of the reasons for adopting Indirect method instead of Direct Primary, on the difficulties of meeting the “copious and stringent preconditions for the exercise of Direct primary.”
According to the party, “all the prerequisites for a credible, successful and violence free primary elections are absent… while “the updated membership register from across wards of the state has not been availed the state chapter by the National Headquarters,” five days to the primary elections. (The Nation )
