The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has offered an insight as to why it has not conducted primaries for vacant elective seats in the country.
APC’s National Organising Secretary, Dr Sulaiman Argungu in a chat with reporters in Abuja explained that the party is waiting for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to conclude his ambassadorial and appointments into Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) before going ahead with the process.
The Sokoto born politician also cited the need to ensure conducive environment for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct the by-election as reason for the delay in the commencement of the sale of expression of interest forms to aspirants.
The APC chieftain also faulted the notions held in certain quarters that it has embarked on the sale of expression of interest and nomination forms to prospective candidates of the party secretly.
He explained that it is being anticipated by INEC that some of the federal and state legislators may be eventually appointed as Nigeria’s ambassadors to various countries.
“They (INEC) are working towards compiling comprehensive lists but they think that they have to pause a while and wait for the appointment of ambassadors; they expect that some current elected officials may become part of the list of new ambassadors,” he noted.
“They won’t want to do by-election today, only to discover tomorrow that there is a host of vacant seats to be filled once again..
“They are just taking their time to ensure that they put things together comprehensively for all these by-elections; anytime arrangements are concluded, they will make nationwide announcement of the timetable to enable all the political parties to comply and APC will make public announcement for all its arrangements.”
Argungu further said that it is mere mischief for anyone to speculate that APC could be selling nomination forms secretly to selected aspirants, stressing that such thing is completely impossible.
“Sell forms? To whom? When we are ready to sell nomination forms, it will be in the public domain; we will make the sale of forms known to all and as usual, it shall be open to any aspirant within the party who wants to participate in the primaries.
“We will sell forms to everyone who is a party member and who expresses interest in participating in the primaries towards electing candidates for the vacant seats.
“No date has been fixed for elections and no nomination forms are being sold yet in Surulere or and other constituency,” he said.
