Enugu State council poll: APC to cancel primaries against party regulations

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu State says it will cancel any primaries for the Nov. 4 Local Government election in the state that do not comply with its regulations.

The Chairman of APC Local Government Election Committee, Chief Eugene Odoh, said this in an interview with our reporter in Enugu on Tuesday.

Odoh said that the party had directed that all candidates for the election must emerge through direct primaries.

The former Speaker of the Enugu State House of Assembly said every member of the party must vote for his or her choice candidate.

He said that there would be no imposition of candidates during the primaries.

“What this means is that members with party cards must come out to vote for individuals of their choices where there are no consensus candidates.

“I was in my local government area for the exercise and it came out fine. We are also getting similar reports from most centres.

“However, the primaries in centres that did not comply with the rule will be cancelled,” he said.

The chairman however applauded the outcome of the party’s primaries for the council poll so far.

Odoh said that the party decided to participate in the poll after weighing its options, adding that the Governor of the state, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, had assured of a free and fair poll.

“We believe that the governor is a democrat and will not like to cause breakdown of law and order in the state.

“He has charged all involved in the exercise to be fair to all parties and the APC has taken him in his words,” he said.

He said that the party had been so proactive and had set up a security committee that would give pre-action notices to security agencies before, during and after the election, if need be.

He said that heads of security agencies in the state, including the Commissioner of Police and the Director of Security Services (DSS) had been notified.

Odoh said that the APC would do all within the law to protect its vote, adding that the party would not contest the outcome of the election where it lost fairly.

“I can assure our supporters that wherever we win, we are going to protect it,” the former legislator said.

It was reported that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had on Sept. 9 conducted its councillorship primaries across the 260 wards in the state with the chairmanship primaries billed for Sept. 16.