APC primaries: No candidate was imposed – Yilwatda

By Seyi Babalola

Nentawe Yilwatda, the National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), has said there was no imposition of candidates at the party’s primary elections.

Yilwatda made this known on Arise News on Monday in response to fears that the party’s consensus politics could lead to the APC’s implosion.

He explained, “In the entire 36 states, we had 29 governors that were going either returning back or new people contesting for governorship in their states. We had only three consensus candidates for governorship.

“All the rest went for direct primaries. There were no impositions because anytime we did, allow the law to run.

“Where consensus cannot come, you go for direct primaries. We created a consensus form. The consensus form allows all the aspirants to sign before consensus takes place. So, where there’s consensus, any state, all the aspirants must have signed. That’s number one.

“Number two, there are states that we had people appealing, that’s why we delayed some of the elections, that’s why some elections were even delayed for two to three days before we conducted them, because people now appealed that there were foul play, so we now shifted the election and made sure we conducted them later.

“Then we had appeal committees, and people were allowed to also appeal the process…”

This assertion comes despite the considerable internal strife generated by the APC’s primary elections nationwide.