APC Convention: National Secretary aspirant Yovwe alleges denial of nomination form

By Jude Opara, Abuja

Dr. Oyiborume Paul Yovee, an aspirant for the position of National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has asked the party to issue him with the nomination form which he said he has fully paid for ahead of the party’s national convention scheduled for hold on the 27th and 28th of this month.
Yovee who was speaking to newsmen, said after following the official procedure for obtaining the form worth N7.5 million as the party published the guidelines it released for the convention, alleged that nobody was ready to answer him.
The aggrieved aspirant added that he proceeded to the bank and paid for the nomination form before presenting his payment teller to the party’s financial department for confirmation and issuance of an official receipt, but all to no avail.
Displaying the payment documents, he alleged that party officials later declined to accept his teller after informing him that the position of National Secretary had already been reserved for a particular individual.
The aspirant who hails from Delta state further claimed that he was told the position had been exclusively reserved for the current National Secretary of the party, Sen. Ajibola Basiru, from Osun State.
“I went to the financial department for them to clear my payment and convert the teller to a receipt, but they refused. When I asked why, I was told that the form for the position of National Secretary had already been assigned to one person,” he said.
Yovee equally claimed that when he went to the party’s organising department to obtain the form, officials also declined to issue it to him, stating that the forms had been allocated to a specific individual.
He described the development as unfair and questioned how a serving party official could allegedly be guaranteed a position without an open contest by other interested party stakeholders.
“How can someone be a judge in his own case? This is the ruling party and a national convention is coming up, yet aspirants are not being allowed to obtain forms or campaign,” he said.
He wondered why the ruling party that ought to lead in fairness will carry out acts that are in direct conflict with its own constitution.
Yovwe added that his decision to contest for the position of National Secretary was based on the understanding that the office had been zoned to the southern part of the country should go to South South since the President from the South-West.