APC to reveal candidates after appeal review, says Yilwatda

… As group demands fresh election in Niger South district

By Jude Opara

As several aspirants in the just concluded primary elections continue to complain over the inability of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to release the names of successful candidates, the National Chairman of the party, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda has disclosed that the party would make public the names after the ongoing review of the entire process.
Yilwatda made the clarification on Thursday at the National Secretariat of the party while addressing a group of protesters operating under the aegis of the Coalition of National Civil Society Organizations (CNCSO).
He further declared that in as much as the party values every voice, all grievances that emanated from the just-concluded party primaries must strictly be resolved in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act as amended as well as the internal guidelines of the party.
The National Chairman who was responding to the demonstrators after receiving the petition on the just concluded party primary in Niger South Senatorial District, emphasized that legally, only individuals who actually participated as candidates in the internal elections hold the legal rights to challenge the outcomes.
“I will ask you a few questions,” Yilwatda told the protesters. “Based on the Electoral Act, it is only aspirants that contested that are supposed to lodge complaints. Is that okay? In simple terms, it is the aspirants that contest the election that can challenge the process of the election.”
Yilwatda then advised the protesting group to direct their principals to utilize the party’s established internal conflict resolution mechanisms, assuring that any valid grievance that have met the strict statutory timelines would be addressed.
“I advise you to tell the aspirants to go and write a petition that they were unjustly treated. And that was supposed to be submitted to the Appeal Committee,” Yilwatda said.
He equally explained to them that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) window for primary elections closed on May 30, even as he promised to forward the petition to the party’s legal department.
“We will forward it to the legal unit to treat them. If they are among those people that submitted within the timeline, because we have to be law-abiding as a party.”
The National Chairman added that the APC is not unaware of the concerns of its members at the grassroots, explaining that he had to cut short his schedule to listen to them because the party relies heavily on the goodwill of its members at every strata.
“This party is meant to address any problem that people have in the grassroots. We need the people. We need the votes. I’m not going to discard any voice. That’s the reason why I saw this, I have to turn back to address you,” he noted.
When asked by journalists regarding the growing anxiety among aspirants over the delay in releasing the final list of successful candidates, as well as demands by some cleared aspirants for refunds, Prof. Yilwatda called for patience, saying that a primary election is not the final stage of the nomination process.
“There’s a process for undertaking all those. The legal department is handling all the appeal reports. That you had an election, that’s not the final decision. Until the appeal has been treated, then we’ll call the National Working Committee (NWC). The NWC can now look at both before we now have to finalise.”
Meanwhile, in the 2-page petition the coalition demanded the immediate cancellation and nullification of the just-concluded senatorial primary election in the Niger South Senatorial District of Niger State.
In the petition signed by the Deputy National Secretary of the coalition, Comrade Danesi Momoh Prince, the group alleged that the democratic choices of the people were heavily compromised to favor a predetermined outcome.