The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has promised to use all legal means to ensure that it fields candidates for the coming elections in Zamfara and Rivers states.
The APC National Publicity Secretary, Malam Lanre Issa-Onilu, who fielded question from journalists on Thursday in Abuja on INEC’s final resolution on Zamfara State, faulted the argument of those insinuating that the electoral body was working for the ruling party going by its current plight.
When asked to react to the INEC decision on Zamfara, Issa-Onilu said, “The issue of Zamfara, we heard that INEC is relying on the fact that courts of equal jurisdiction have given conflicting judgements.
“We can understand that. What it thus means is that it is not over and then we will continue to take steps. We are very certain, we did the right thing. The primaries held, INEC was not satisfied with that but it is our right to field candidates and we would follow up all the legal means to ensure that our candidates stand for elections in this 2019 general elections in Zamfara. Same situation for Rivers.
“It also shows for people who are discerning to ask that question, this supposed to be the APC that INEC is or ought to be working for?
“And this is what we are going through in the hands of INEC that PDP has repeatedly claimed is put in place to rig elections for APC.
“May I remind all of us, that we had primaries in Zamfara which was affected by conflicts but the process allows for three different options.
“You could go for indirect which is an electoral college, you could go with direct that allows every card-carrying member of the party to vote for their chosen candidates and then thirdly, you go by consensus. We have the right under the constitution to exhaust these options. We did so.
“But let me add that in Kano State, PDP did not do primaries. PDP did not take any of these options and yet today, INEC is not saying anything regarding PDP and all the candidates submitted for PDP in Kano were accepted. This is a fact that nobody can deny but we will not go to town to start pillorying INEC, this is a very critical institution to the success of any election.
“We will continue to trust all institutions because we believe that is by having strong institutions that we can develop this country and we support institutions so that when they make mistakes rather than vilify them we will try to work with them following due process to ensure the right thing is done.”
