Borno APC guber aspirants call for cancellation of primaries

The Honourable Minister of State for Works, Power and Transport, Alhaji Mustapha Baba Shehuri has, in strong terms, called on the All Progressives congress (APC) National Working Committee (NWC) as a matter of urgency and importance to cancel or postpone Borno state governorship primary election. They claimed that the election from preparation to implementation was fraught with several irregularities and that it did not meet the barest minimum requirement for a free, fair and credible election. He also said twelve gubernatorial aspirants met on Saturday and took a common decision on the conduct of the APC gubernatorial primaries scheduled for Sunday. ” Unfortunately, and as we had feared, the indirect primaries exercise conducted in Borno state from the preparation to implementation was fraught with several irregularities. It did not meet the barest minimum required for a free, fair and credible election.” The Minister said yesterday at a press conference in Gus residence Maiduguri that some of the irregularities that took place amongst others include, media release of preferred candidate by the governor, adding that the governor compromised the entire process by anointing a governorship candidate for the party. He further alleged that the governor directed the State Chairman of the APC, Hon. Ali Bukar Dalori to assemble 13 of the aspirants, majority of who are here with us can testify of the governors preferred candidate while all the other aspirants were instructed to withdraw and when some of them refused. Shehuri added that the governor turned up personally and in a few minutes of address announced his preferred candidate, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum and left without any courtesy. He explained that the governor followed up this with the issuance of a media release dated 30th September, 2018 in which he announced the name of his preferred candidate, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum and attempted to rationalize it with Facebook messages. He alleged that the governor further chartered a private plane and flew in the electoral committee from Abuja and they were picked up from the Maiduguri International Airport and conveyed them to the Government House in the state house vehicles and were lodged in the Government House, casting his suspicions on his capacity to host the Electoral Committee in a manner befitting an unbiased host