APC primaries: I will not plead for anybody to be given ticket – Sen. Akpabio

By Jude Opara

Senate President and Chairman of the National Assembly, Sen. Godswill Akpabio has urged members of the party, especially those who contested and lost in the just concluded primary elections of the party to accept the outcome in good faith as loyal party members.

Akpabio who spoke on Wednesday in Abuja at the inauguration of the Ekiti State Governorship National Campaign Council said he will not because he is the Senate President beg the National Working Committee (NWC) to include anybody in their final list which is yet to be made public.

The former governor of Akwa Ibom state while congratulating the Ekiti state governor, Biodun Oyebanji in advance said the caliber of people behind his candidature both within and outside the state shows he is as good as winning the election which holds on June 20.

“All of us are here because we are loyal to our party. The party is supreme.

“I’m only pleading with the party that when they bring out their final list, then they need to show that they are carrying all of us along. When the working committee meets, and brings out their final list, outside the committee, or the names of the people contesting the election, some of my people are having hypertension.

“National Chairman, when you meet to bring out the list, be sure that you are carrying all the National Assembly members along. And for the governors, yes, the State Assembly said they are going to work with you, so you have the right to have a say on those that are going to be working with you. You have the absolute right to choose anybody you want.

“And then for the President of Nigeria, President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, he also has the right to make him input. But when anybody has lost the election on the ground, please don’t expect me, as chairman of the National Assembly, to come and plead with you to put the person. It simply means the person has lost.

“So, I want to congratulate those who won the primaries, and then plead with my colleagues, both in the House of Representatives and the Senate, that the Senate president, as chairman of the National Assembly, is saying that you should have done your homework well before going for the primaries”.

It could be recalled that there are a lot of complaints that have trailed the primaries of the party, with many aspirants claiming that the party did not conduct free and fair elections, contrary to what they had promised them.