There is a fresh crisis in the Benue State chapter of the All Progressives Congress over the election of a governorship aspirant for the party.
Five of the governorship aspirants on Friday dissociated themselves from the name of an aspirant purportedly submitted to the national headquarters of the party as the consensus candidate.
The aspirants, under the aegis of Forum of governorship aspirants in Benue State, said they were never a party to the decision to have a consensus candidate.
The aspirants, in a letter to the national leadership of the party, said except there is prompt intervention, there will be fresh crisis in the state chapter of the party.
The aspirants – Chief Akange Audu, Hon. Mike Iordye, Hon. Emmanuel Jime, Senator Joseph Waku and Prof. Steve Ugbah – demanded for a free and fair process for the emergence of a candidate for the governorship ticket in the state.
The letter, addressed to the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, by the aspirants reads in full: “Congratulations for holding a successful national convention to elect our party’s presidential candidate! We are proud of your accomplishments.
“All is not well with our party in Benue State. We have not been able to conclude our primaries to elect a flag-bearer for the governorship elections in 2015. We understand that some individuals are attempting to forward to the National Secretariat of our party the name of a so-called CONSENSUS CANDIDATE who is not among the five aspirants contesting for the slot. We have not yet agreed on a consensus candidate. Therefore, we ask that you use your good offices to intervene in this matter so as to save our party, APC, which we all love so much.
“Therefore, we, the undersigned, make the following declarations:
“1. That APC has not been able to hold and conclude any APC GOVERNORSHIP PRIMARIES yet.
“2. That to the best of knowledge, there are only five bona fide Governorship Aspirants on the APC platform in Benue State—Messrs. Akange Audu, Emmanuel Jime, Mike Iordye, Joseph Waku, and Steve Ugbah.
“3. That accordingly, we are the Only Governorship Aspirants who have bought the Expression of Interest/Nomination Forms, and have been duly screened and issued certificates by the Olagunsoye Oyinlola-led APC Governorship Screening Panel, which sat at Ilorin, the Kwara State Capital.
“4. That there has not been any meeting of APC Stakeholders or Governorship aspirants on the platform of the party during or after which we chose a Consensus Candidate.
“5. That as a consequence of the fore-going, we categorically dissociate ourselves from any so-called CONSENSUS CANDIDATE whose name has been sent to the National Secretariat.
“We wish to affirm our support for our great party, APC, and its leadership at the state and national levels.”