Presidential, Governorship Primaries: APC Begins Process

– Delegates’ election tomorrow

– Governorship candidates shadow poll on Friday

Governorship candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) will be elected on Friday as the ruling party begins the process that will culminate in the emergence of its presidential candidate on June 1.

Delegates will pick the candidates in the 28 states where governorship elections will hold.

It will be five delegates per ward. There are 8,809 wards across the country.

It will be five delegates per ward. There are 8,809 wards across the country.

Also to be elected tomorrow are 2,322 delegates – three each from the 774 local government areas who will join the statutory delegates to elect the party’s presidential standard bearer.

Thirty-seven panels in one for each of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were inaugurated yesterday at the party’s national secretariat.

The panels, in addition to conducting the election of delegates, will also screen cleared aspirants for House of Assembly elections.

There will be no election in eight states in 2023 where the elections are off-season. These include Bayelsa, Edo, Ondo, Anambra, Kogi, Imo as well as Ekiti and Osun states where elections will take place next month and July.

The APC has cleared 145 governorship aspirants for the Friday primaries.

Also, of the 351 aspirants that purchased senatorial nomination forms, 340 got a clean bill of health.

It was gathered that a senatorial aspirant from one of the Southwest states, who picked the nomination form, failed to appear before any of the three screening panels at the weekend.

There are 1,197 aspirants for the House of Representatives.

On May 22, House of Assembly primaries in 36 states will hold; 2,822 aspirants will be screened between today and tomorrow.

The election to pick candidates for the House of Representatives is on May 24 and Senate on May 25.

Throwing light on the plan, the Chairman of the Kebbi State panel, Osita Okechukwu said: “What we are going to do is to screen those we think are qualified to run for the House of Assembly.

“We have over 3000 aspirants contesting across the country. For us to do a good job, we want to make it easier for the electorate by presenting those who are better, more qualified, that meet all the conditions.

“One of which is being a Nigerian, having gone to secondary school and being of good behaviour. This is our job.

“We are going to elect five delegates per ward and there are 8,809 wards in the country. Those elected five delegates per ward will go to the state and elect the governor.

“We are going to elect three delegates from each of the 774 local governments who will elect the presidential candidate.”

Deputy National Chairman (North), Senator Abubakar Kyari, who inaugurated the 37 Congresses Committees, said: “This is the foundation of all the primaries. We have just conducted the screening of the gubernatorial, senatorial and House of Representatives aspirants.

“But, the basic foundation is what you people are going to do, which is the election of local government and state delegates.”