National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has pleaded with contenders for the party ticket not to destroy the party through financial inducement.
Ganduje made the appeal on Tuesday in Abuja when he met with certain chieftains of the party under the platform,Booth 2 Booth with Bola Tinubu.
The APC primary to pick its candidate has been fixed for April 5.
Ganduje who noted that there are so many rich men in Anambra with huge cash to throw around, said he would push for a credible, free and fair primaries.
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He also said he would very much impressed if the aspirants and the stakeholders could arrive at the consensus option in picking the party candidate ahead of the November election.
He said, ” All of them are educated and rich. We have told them that this time around, business should not be as usual. Let us support the system.
“We know they are very rich, they have a lot of money, but they should not use the money to scatter the state. They should use the money to develop the state and but the APC.
“In fact, I will be highly interested if they can produce a candidate through consensus, I will give them an award.
“You mention the option of direct or indirect primary. As an institution, I assure you, we will sit down and the National Working Committee in conjunction with the leadership of the party in the state and agree on whichever method for the primary.”
Earlier in his National Coordinator of the Booth 2 Booth with Bola Tinubu, Iyke Madu, called for an indirect primary.
He said: “We are here to also make a request to see to it that a credible, fee, free, transparent primary is conducted in Anambra State, and this is to avoid the pitfalls of 2021 where primaries were supposed to have been conducted and election results announced in the hotel rooms in which a candidate who got 300,000 votes in the primaries could not even get up to 50,000 votes during the contest against other parties.
“There is issue of insecurity in Anambra we speak, even the state government could not conduct their own local government elections due to insecurity.
“So we are here only requesting for the party to adopt an indirect primary method. Our constitution provides for that.”
