The national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has cleared aspirants for the House of Representatives in Lagos, Rivers, Enugu, Ekiti and other states to participate in the party’s primaries, barring any last-minute change in plan.

Sketchy information available at the secretariat of the ruling party in Abuja indicates that the party screened and cleared all the aspirants who purchased its expression of interest and nomination forms to vie for the tickets to the lower legislative chamber from those states.

Our source equally disclosed that all is now set for the conduct of the shadow elections into the House of Representatives on Friday in various states across the country.

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling party, according to our source, has reportedly ceded significant control to the state governors to decide the “mode of primary” best suited to their respective domains after wide consultations with all relevant stakeholders.

Our source, a senior party official involved in conducting the screening process for the five key states, disclosed that the committee resisted all attempts to bow to external interference aimed at disqualifying certain aspirants.

While admitting intense lobbying and “pressure from political opponents”, the source noted that the party’s screening panels settled for an all-inclusive approach.

According to the official: “No aspirant was disqualified. I was part of the team that handled Lagos, Ondo, Ekiti, Enugu and Rivers states, and I can confirm to you that all the aspirants were cleared.

“Yes, there was intense pressure to disqualify some aspirants, but the screening committee stood its ground and cleared all of them,” the official said.

The national leadership of the party spent the greater part of Tuesday and Wednesday reviewing the findings of the screening committees. Although the official results have not been formally gazetted, sources at the party’s secretariat confirmed that the reports were fine-tuned and ratified.

The party’s leadership, it was further gathered, also directed primary election committees in the states to liaise with the state governors in their places of assignment to ensure seamless and rancour-free primaries that would produce acceptable candidates to fly the party’s flag next year.

The NWC had, at its 186th meeting in April, granted a similar concession to the state governors to coordinate the adoption of the mode of the primary elections.

The governors, according to a party official, will now determine the most acceptable mode of primary to ensure the emergence of generally acceptable candidates, stressing that the party will adhere to the timelines of the revised timetable and schedule of activities for the primaries.

“We have done everything possible for the primaries to hold as scheduled,” the source assured.

The House of Representatives primary on Friday, holding in all 360 federal constituencies, will kick-start the marathon week-long political activities, followed by the senatorial primary scheduled for Monday, May 18; the House of Assembly primary on Wednesday, May 20; the governorship primary on Thursday, May 21; and climaxing with the presidential primary on Saturday, May 23. (The Sun)

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