By MARYAM AHMADU-SUKA

Some All Progressives Congress(APC) aspirants, who are seeking the party’s tickets to contest the National Assembly elections in Kaduna State, have rejected the outcome of the party’s primary elections held on Saturday.

The aspirants, under the aegis of the Coalition of Kaduna Senatorial/House of Representatives Frontline Aspirants (CKEA), alleged that the exercise was riddled with “widespread violations of the party’s constitution and nomination guidelines”.

They made their position known in a protest letter addressed to the APC national leadership and other relevant authorities, a copy of which was presented to newsmen at a press briefing in Kaduna on Sunday.

The aspirants alleged that the processes leading to the emergence of candidates for House of Representatives were marred by irregularities, “including imposition of candidates, lack of democratic voting and disregard for established party procedures”.

According to the coalition, the party leadership imposed “consensus” candidates without obtaining the mandatory written consent of cleared aspirants as stipulated in Article 20 of the APC constitution.

The group also claimed that no proper primary elections were conducted in the three senatorial districts, while party members were denied the opportunity to vote for candidates of their choice.

The aspirants further alleged that some committees handling the exercise claimed to be acting “under the directives of the Kaduna State Governor”.

They accused the state APC executives of failing to address concerns raised over the conduct of the exercise.

The aspirants described the primaries as “a complete sham” capable of undermining party unity and negatively affecting the APC’s performance in the forthcoming general elections.

The coalition specifically cited the Kaduna Central Senatorial District where the consensus committee headed by the Deputy Governor, Dr Hadiza Balarabe, attempted to impose former Sen. Shehu Sani as the consensus candidate.

The group said that two frontline aspirants, former Speaker of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Mr. Yusuf Zailani, and an activist, Yerima Shettima, rejected the consensus arrangement and demanded transparent primary elections.

The coalition added that similar complaints of imposition and lack of transparency were recorded in Kaduna North and Kaduna South senatorial districts.

The aggrieved aspirants urged the APC national leadership to nullify the consensus arrangements and the House of Representatives primaries conducted on May 16 in Kaduna State.

They also called for fresh direct primary elections for all senatorial districts and House of Representatives constituencies in line with the party’s constitution and guidelines.

The coalition demanded that the party leadership act on their grievances within 48 hours to safeguard the integrity and unity of the APC.

Among signatories to the protest letter were Yusuf Bala Ikara, Mohammed Mu’azu Makaddas, Yerima Usman Shettima, Yusuf Zailani and Sen. Danjuma Laah.

Others included Michael Ayuba Auta, Bashir Yusuf, Augustine Beguwa, Abdulazeez Abubakar Kaka, Yahaya Idris and Sani Abdulkadir.(NAN)

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