A group, Booth to Booth with Bola Tinubu has appealed to the the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to adopt indirect mode of primary to elect the candidate of the party due to the insecurity in the state.
The ruling party had fixed April 5, 2025 for the primary election.
The National Coordinator of the group, Iyke Madu, made the plea on Tuesday in Abuja during a courtesy call on the National Chairman of the party, Dr. Abdulahi Ganduje.
He said the state government was unable to conduct the local government elections due to the insecurity in the state.
Madu stated: “There is issue of insecurity in Anambra as we speak, even the state government could not conduct their own local government elections due to insecurity.
“They wrote to some certain communities telling them that, due to insecurity, elections cannot be conducted in that in those places.
“And we are thinking, if a state government cannot conduct their own local government elections due to insecurity, it’s going to be difficult for a party that does not control the state to do a direct primaries.
“So, we are here only requesting for the party to make these primaries indirect primaries. Our constitution provides for that.”
Madu recalled that during a few engagement he had with Ganduje, he had always promised to make sure that the South East is reintegrated into the mainstream of Nigerian politics.
He noted: “And each time you say it, I see this conviction. I see this fire in your eyes, and it’s beyond what you’ve said, even your actions have shown that this is exactly what you set out to do, which gave birth to what you described as the de-marginalisation of southeast Nigeria.”
Madu, however, urged the NWC to conduct free, fair and am transparent primary election to avoid the pitfall of 2022 election.
He noted: “But before that, primary election comes. We are here to also make a request for you from from your leadership — National Working Committee, which is to see to it that a credible, fee, free, transparent primary is conducted in Anambra State, and this is to avoid the pitfalls of 2022 where primaries were supposed to have been conducted and election results announced in the hotel rooms in which a candidate got with up to 300,000 votes the primaries, but on election day, they could not even get up to 50,000 votes.
“So, we are here to humbly request for you to ensure that a free and fair, credible primary election is conducted in Anambra State and with the caliber of people that have indicated interest in that election.
“We believe that if credible primary is conducted, and it is clear to everybody that the winner emerged through a credible process, if they all work together, victory will be ours.”
Responding, Ganduje assured that the ruling party would conduct free, fair and transparent primaries.
The chairman said Anambra should assist in providing conducive atmosphere.
Ganduje stated: “As a party, if we are to have good primary in the state, all our stakeholders supposed to be born again. We told them that this time around, business should not be as usual. Let us support the system.
“We know they are very rich, they have a lot of money, but they should not use the money to scatter the state. They should not use the money to scatter the state but to develop the state and build APC. In fact, I will be highly interested if they can produce a candidate, consensus, I will give them an award.
“You mention the option of direct or indirect primary. As an institution, I assure you, we will sit down and the National Working Committee in conjunction with the leadership of the party in a number of state we come back with whichever method for the primary.”