APC members in Bauchi decry shabby treatment, non-conduct of primaries

Card-carrying members of the All Progressives Congress in Bauchi eager to elect their party’s flag bearer on Sunday left their polling units disappointed as voting could not commence as at 6pm.

‎The News Agency of Nigeria reports the members had been told that voting would commence 10am and they had been at the Centre as early as 6am.

The party is using the direct primary method whereby all party members with the party membership card would vote in all the wards to elect candidates of the party in the state.
One of the APC members who came to Baba Sidi polling unit to vote, Malam Sabitu Musa , told NAN  that he his time had been wasted, adding that he was smelling a ‘rat’ in the whole affair.
A shoe-maker, Aminu Mohammed, who also came to  Bakari Dukku polling unit to vote, said when he noticed that it was taking long without neither officials nor materials, he suspected that the exercise might not hold today (Sunday).

Mohammed said: “We have been out here since very early in the morning and this is past 4pm, yet we have not seen materials or officials who would conduct the exercise.
“Some have gone back and I may also leave if the officials and the materials do not arrive by 5pm. I cannot waste the whole day here.”
Another voter at Birshi Fulani polling unit, Ezra Lassan, said the manner they were kept waiting for the whole day without any briefing, was a brazen display of lack of consideration on the part of whoever was responsible.

Another APC supporter, Hajiya Lami Gambo, expressed her dismayed over the non-conduct of the primaries.
Gambo said: “We came this morning with all the zeal to vote for our candidates, only to waste our energy, time and resources for nothing; we are leaving now without any knowledge of when the primaries will take place.
“Such treatment will discourage people from coming out again.”
When contacted, the Organising Secretary of APC in the state, Alhaji Abdulkadir Gyang, assured that primaries will be conducted in Bauchi.
He said the committee members that would conduct the exercise had just arrived, adding that they were only waiting for their chairman.

He however declined to state whether the exercise would still hold on Sunday or postponed to another day.

NAN reports that as at Sunday, 6.25pm, voting had not commenced and party members had deserted the polling units, having spent the whole day waiting in vain.