Though stakeholders of the Bauchi state chapter of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), recently met at Government House and endorsed incumbent Governor, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar for a second term as well as adopted indirect voting system for the conduct of the party’s primaries.
Former Police Affairs Minister, Dr. Yakubu Ibrahim Lame and Captain Bala Jibrin who are both gubernatorial aspirants of the party have jointly kicked against the decision of the stakeholders declaring that it was done in bad faith and as a way to pave for the incumbent to emerge victorious at the end of the exercise ahead of the 2019 election.
The duo who were at the party’s State Secretariat to formally declare their gubernatorial intentions, therefore, called on the party to be fair and just to all the aspirants by ensuring that real internal democracy and justice prevailed in the conduct of the exercise.
The two aspirants also used the visit to State Secretariat of the party to inform the leadership of the APC that already their intent and nomination forms to contest for Bauchi the governorship has been submitted and acknowledged at the party’s national headquarters in Abuja.
While speaking for the duo, Yakubu Lame declared that, “We want to state categorically clear that as founding members of the APC, we vehemently kick against any attempt for indirect primary election because justice will not be done to all aspirants as in the direct primary election.”
The former Police Affairs Minister added that the current APC administration in the State must be voted out to ushered in a credible leadership that will be able to heel the wounds inflicted on Bauchi people since 2015 when the administration came into power.
According to him, other APC aspirants will resist any move to smuggled in a preferred candidate through the indirect primary system stressing that justice must be done to all advising that the APC leadership should not ignore their complaints which is before a competent court to ensure justice.
“APC built on justice, so the party should not ignore all our complaints so as to avoid the mistake of the PDP in the 2015 elections,” Lame warned.
The guber aspirants had during the visit to the party secretariat posited that the APC belongs to all its members, therefore, they have the right to contest under it and harping on internal democracy.
While receiving the aspirants and their supporters, he APC Deputy State Chairman, Mohammed Hassan, promised that justice will be done to all aspirants of the party harping on the unity of the party ahead of the 2019 elections especially among all the APC aspirants and members.
Mohammed Hassan also assured that justice will be extended to all contestants saying that there is no ‘god-fatherism’ in the APC adding that, “I assure you that the party at the state level will give equal treatment to all its aspirants.”
