The All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed claims that sitting governors and federal lawmakers could be granted automatic tickets, saying all aspirants must undergo primary elections.
In an interview with ARISE NEWS on Thursday, APC Deputy National Chairman (South), Dr. Ben Nwoye, said “And then this story about automatic ticket, it is not true… the constitution says every four years, a governor or a National Assembly member, or even a State Assembly member, will go back and face their constituency…”
He stressed the legal framework, noting, “It is not known to our constitution. It’s not known to law. That’s why we have primary elections. That’s why people go and campaign.”
On the idea that party members had demanded automatic tickets, Nwoye said, “Even the story that they’ve demanded, I think it’s stretched a little bit too far, because we have performing legislators.”
Responding to reports of internal meetings on automatic tickets, he explained, “Wherever that kind of meeting held, I am deputy national chairman, south. That is unknown to me. And what I can assure you is that we don’t do things that way.”
Nwoye questioned the credibility of media claims based on unnamed sources, saying, “We have just one spokesperson, and that is Felix Morka. And we have one chairman, we have one national chairman, one national secretary, one national organising secretary. Who is the source? I think they want to build up stories.”
Clarifying party rules on candidate selection, he said: “Our mode of election is two ways. One, it could be consensus, or the voting pattern. And consensus is known to our constitution. But what is unknown to our constitution is automatic ticket. Automatic ticket…”
He added, “Under the electoral act, you have to have a primary. And there are modes of that primary it’s spelled out. You can decide on consensus… None is wrong with that. It’s supported by the law, Or you can decide, a direct primary.”
On performance as a criterion for re-election, Nwoye explained, “If you are a performing legislator, a performing governor, of course, you go to your people with your report card, showing what you have done. But if you are a seat tight senator or a seat tight member of the House who have failed to perform, whether you think you want to go back to your constituents. It is those voters, your constituents, that will make the determination.”
He also emphasised that the party’s official primary election calendar is yet to be released: “By the way, I must tell you, our calendar is not yet out. What we have is a calendar from INEC saying that the primary will start any time from this month, 23rd of this month. But we have not fixed calendar. We have not started selling forms.”
Finally, on the necessity of clarifying misinformation, Nwoye said: “So these are stories laid out there so that people like me will come out and clarify.”
Ademide Adebayo
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