Taraba: aggrieved governorship aspirants to boycott APC Feb. 10, rescheduled primaries

Five aggrieved All Progressives Congress (APC) Taraba governorship aspirants has said that they will not be party of the party’s rescheduled primaries slated for Feb. 10 in Jalingo the state capital.

Sen. Yusuf Yusuf while addressing a news conference on Thursday in Abuja on behalf of the aggrieved aspirants, said they were staying away from the primaries following a Supreme Court judgement.

Yusuf who represents Taraba Central in the Senate, said the news conference was important because it had to do with flagrant disobedience to the Supreme Court judgement which was the country’s apex court.

“For the purpose of refreshing our memories, the race to clinch the APC gubernatorial ticket started in 2022 with seven aspirants who obtained the party‘s expression of interest and nomination forms.

“On the day of the primaries, while all aspirants and delegates had an unresolved meeting at Shield Hotel Jalingo, for security concerns.

“The chairman of the committee Mr Lawrence Onochukwu was taken to the police headquarters in Jalingo for safety,” he recalled.

He added that on seeing on social media photos of fake direct primary election in some parts of the state, Onochukwu granted a press briefing that he never authorised any primaries.

He further said that the elections would hold the next day after sorting out all the issues.

Yusuf further added that to the surprise of other aspirants, Sen. Emmanuel Bwacha was announced as winner of the Taraba APC gubernatorial primaries that never held.

“After sorting out all the internal mechanism within the party to arrest the situation, no effort was made by its leadership to do the right thing.

“Hence the need for legal action against the party and the acclaimed winner of the primaries Sen. Emmanuel Bwacha.

“The Legal action ended at the apex court and we were vindicated that truly there were no gubernatorial primaries in Taraba APC,” Yusuf said.

He explained that before the case got to the Supreme Court, one from the six aggrieved aspirants left the APC for New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) due to lack of transparency and impunity.

He said the remaining five aggrieved aspirants decided not to leave the APC for intruders, but to stay and fight for their right and to protect democracy.

“Following the Supreme Court judgement of Feb. 1, that voided the purported APC gubernatorial primaries in Taraba that produced Bwacha.

“The party’s National working Committee(NWC) under the leadership of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu did not convene any meeting with the aspirants whether physically or virtually for any briefing.

“Rather, a text message was sent to us the aspirants, today Feb. 9, 2023 followed by social media reports that a primary is scheduled to hold at Mumuye Hall, Mile 6 Jalingo tomorrow Feb. 10, 2023.

“This is a total and flagrant disobedience to the Supreme Court judgement in the case of David Sabo Kente vs Sen Emmanuel Bwacha,” Yusuf stressed.

He added that for the avoidance of doubt, the apex court did not at any time order for another primaries after it voided the acclaimed primaries that alledgly produced Bwacha.

Yusuf said the apex court granted all the reliefs sought in the trial court by David Kente except for rescheduled primaries within fourteen days.

“As law abiding Nigerians and loyal party men, we are telling the whole world that we will not be part of the illegal primary election as scheduled by the APC Adamu-led NWC,”he said.

This, he said, was especially because the primaries as scheduled by the party’s NWC was in total violation of the supreme court judgement as delivered unanimously by the five panel of justices.

He wondered if the APC national chairman, Emmanuel Bwacha and their cronies were deliberately trying to act superior to the Supreme Court.

He also wondered why the other aspirants were not being carried along by the party’s chairman in every processes that would legitimately enthrone due process and internal democracy.

Yusuf said the APC NWC should be aware of the pending judgement in the case between him and Bwacha in court that had been slated to be delivered by the apex court on Feb. 13.

He added that it was unfortunate that the flair for usual flagrant disobedience to court order and lack of internal democracy had beclouded the judgment of some individuals.

According to him, such individuals could go to any length to enthrone impunity for their personal interest, which will certainly attract heavy consequences.

He noted that if not for person interest, the party’s leadership had no reason to ignore or disobey the supreme court judgment in a bid to do the biding of a particular aspirant to the detriment of others and the party at large.

“Once again we want to let all party faithful know that whatever illegally that is about to be perpetuated at Mumuye hall Jalingo tomorrow will be challenged in competent courts of our land,” Yusuf said(https://newsatlarge.ng)