From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has commenced sale of expression of interest and nomination forms to conduct the primaries for next month’s bye-elections into the State and National Assembly.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), recently released guidelines and schedule of activities for the conduct of the bye-elections into several senatorial district, federal constituencies and State Assemblies next month.
Among the early birds include were Oscar Agedo, for Ovia South-West/Ovia North-East Federal Constituency and Yakubu Waziri contesting for Federal House of Representatives for Chikun/Kajuru Constituency, Kaduna State.
Speaking on the sideline after purchasing the forms, Agedo, vying to replace the deputy governor of Edo State, Dennis Idahosa, said: “Today is a great day for me, having purchased this form to run for the Federal House of Representatives for Ovia South-West/Ovia North-East Federal Constituency. My intention to represent my people in the Green Chambers is simple: to make good laws for our country and to ensure proper representation for my people, especially in the area of infrastructural development.
“I assure you that I will make my people proud. My constituents are here with me, and I sincerely appreciate them for their support so far. I also want to appeal to the National Working Committee (NWC) that our party is known for credible and transparent primaries. I am confident that come July 19th, we will have a free and fair primary election in our constituency,” he said.
On his own, Yakubu Waziri, vying to replace Ekene Adams, who died last year, said: “We are here this morning to purchase the appropriate documents to enable us to contest the upcoming bye-election. To the glory of God, we have successfully collected the forms.
“As I always say, we have done so much already, and I encourage you to go out there and independently verify our track record. You don’t need to tell me; just do your findings and see for yourself what we have done and what we intend to do, by the grace of God.
“Our mission is to ease the pressure on our people, particularly in the area of security, where Mr. President has made significant progress. I commend Mr. President for his support to our constituency.
“You’re all aware that, for a long time, Chikun and Kajuru were constantly in the news for negative reasons. But today, thanks to the intervention of the President Bola Tinubu, and the People’s Governor—that’s what we call him because he’s approachable—the situation has improved.”