The All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election for the Abuja South Federal Constituency ground to a halt on Saturday after a bitter standoff over the adoption of a consensus candidate left thousands of party members stranded at voting centres across four area councils.

This was even as electoral officials were nowhere in sight hours after proceedings were supposed to have begun.

Party faithful who turned out as early as 8am at designated centres — including Pilot/Demonstration Primary School in Gwagwalada and Science Pilot Primary School in Kwali — waited in vain throughout the day.

By 5pm, the venues had largely emptied, with only a handful of determined members still clutching their membership cards in anticipation of an exercise that never materialised.

The collapse followed three days of deadlocked talks across the Abaji, Kwali, Gwagwalada and Kuje Area Councils, where party leaders had been unable to agree on a single consensus candidate to present for the seat. With negotiations failing to yield any agreement, the scheduled primary became the casualty.

Outgoing Gwagwalada Area Council Chairman and frontline aspirant Alhaji Abubakar Jibrin Giri laid the blame squarely at the door of recent defectors from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accusing them of orchestrating the consensus push to capture the party machinery through unconventional means.

“Consensus will not work in the Federal Capital Territory. Those championing this method are defectors from the PDP who want to grab power through the back door. The members of this party will resist any attempt to bypass due process and impose unpopular aspirants on us”, he declared.

Giri demanded that all aspirants be put to a democratic test, and used the occasion to take aim at the incumbent lawmaker, Hon. Abdulrahman Ajiya, who is also in the race.

“The incumbent has wasted four years in the Green Chamber without doing anything tangible for our people. The three or four of us contesting should be allowed to go to the polls. Whoever wins, we will support them to fly the party’s flag. If elected, I promise to bridge the gap, remain accessible, and attract modern infrastructural development to Gwagwalada and the entire constituency,” he said.

Former Commissioner at the National Population Commission representing the Federal Capital Territory and ex-Kwali Area Council Chairman, Hon. Joseph Shazin also rounded on the party leadership, warning that forcing a consensus on an unwilling membership risked triggering mass defections from the APC.

Standing outside the Pilot Science Primary School in Kwali, where voters had gathered but no electoral officials arrived, Shazin said the turnout itself was proof of the membership’s appetite for a genuine contest.

“The people are willing to elect their favourite candidate; you can see that from the large turnout here at the Pilot Science Primary School, Kwali. But there are no officials to conduct the election,” he told journalists.

“While meetings are still ongoing to produce a consensus candidate, my interactions with the aspirants show that a consensus might not be possible. The leadership must allow free and fair primaries. People should be allowed to vote for the person they want,” Shazin added.

Four aspirants are contesting the Abuja South seat: Abubakar Jibrin Giri, Danladi Chiya, Yahaya Musa and the incumbent Abdulrahman Ajiya.

As night fell on Saturday, skeletal voting activity was reported in parts of Gwagwalada, but the process remained entirely frozen in Kwali and Abaji, where aspirant Danladi Chiya was said to be locked in last-minute closed-door talks with two other contenders from Abaji in a final effort to salvage the consensus arrangement. (Vanguard)

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