Adams Oshiomhole, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress(APC), has said that conducting direct primaries to pick the party’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Senatorial candidate for 2019 election is not negotiable.
Oshiomhole stated this on Thursday in Abuja while speaking with newsmen after a closed-door meeting with governors on the party’s platform.
He, however, said that the challenges that followed the party’s recent primaries in some states of the federation were normal in a democracy and in a vibrant party such as the APC.
“For the FCT, I think there are some elements who believe they can hijack the process and impose their personal preferences on the people.
“We are trying to clean up our party’s internal democracy and eliminate corruption as much as we can from the process and empower our party members to have a say and a decisive voice on who represents them or flies the party’s flag.
“FCT is the capital of Nigeria, if we cannot do transparent election in FCT, then for me, it will be a sad day.
“We are trying to encourage democracy and if they don’t want democracy, they will have to look for ways of living outside the democratic space,”Oshiomhole said.
He added that the APC was determined to enforce the rules of democracy in the FCT, saying that those protesting against the adoption of direct primaries were sponsored and were only wasting their time.
He added that he took on the APC chairmanship position to deepen the core values of democracy which included popular participation and giving everyone a sense of ownership.
The APC national chairman stressed that FCT would have to do direct primary, saying that;”I have told the committee to go back and call the stakeholders.
“By tomorrow morning, they will have to conduct free, fair and transparent direct primary in the FCT. This is not negotiable. “Those aspirants who are looking for short cut should know that there is no short cut to democratic process.
“If you cannot withstand the rigour of communication, persuading and earning the trust and respect of the ordinary member of the APC in the FCT, maybe APC should not be your party,”he added.
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