By Alphonsus Nweze
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra State, Sir Arinzechukwu Awogu, has said that members of the party will endorse any method the party would adopt for the upcoming Governorship primaries of the party on April 5, 2025.
He however opined that direct primaries can no longer be practicable given the proximity of time, insecurity in the state and lack of updated party membership register.
Sir Awogu who is the National Coordinator of Ikemba Front said this in a statement he released in Awka, the State capital in response to some attempts by some faceless agents working for the opposition parties in the State but masquerading as members of the party who are jittery over possible adoption of indirect primary in the April 5, 2025 primary of the party in Anambra State.
He said these people are afraid that indirect primary may not favour their plot against the party’s determination to win the November 8, 2025 election.
“The mode of primaries used in the election of candidates are determined by prevailing circumstances surrounding the primaries and the election proper, and like the Anambra State Working Committee of the party has suggested, indirect primaries best suits the situation at the moment,” Sir Awogu said.
He continued:”Whichever way we exercise our franchise, what we are actually doing is voting for persons within our constituencies or localities to act or speak for us as we all can not be there to act or speak. We all can’t go to Abuja to agree on every national issue or every national issue brought to our doorsteps before a deal is made. That would be anarchical.”
He said it is such delegate method that market associations or town union meetings use in their elections.
“It is all about representation, where representatives of every home, most often the fathers, come together to make decisions for every member of the society. So also, are delegates elected by party members from the political wards. There is nothing less democratic about indirect primaries.
“In any case, for you to have direct primaries you must have a comprehensive party membership register in all of the wards in the state, 326 of them, which does not exist at the moment and no recent review of ward party membership register has been done lately and the party can’t rely on the old registers which will disenfranchise tens of thousands of new members” Awogu submitted.
Continuing, he said:”For direct primary to take place the National Secretariat of the party ought to have submitted ward party membership register to INEC for the monitoring of the direct primary which has not been submitted and it is also not available to be submitted even, and it can not be manufactured over night. Then you look at the insecurity that has become a plaque in the state where seven local government areas are under the grip of non state actors. Accessibility and safety become issues of concern,”
Sir Awogu spoke against the backdrop of a baseless accusation of undue pressure on the members of the National Working Committee of the party to adopt indirect primary, insisting that those attempting to blackmail the members of the National Working Committee of the party are agents of opposition parties who are crying wolf when none existed and whose dispositions were designed to favour the opposition parties while pretending to be members of APC in the state.
He said the accusation exists only in the figment of the imaginations of the agents working for the opposition parties in the state.
The former chairman of Ogbaru Local Government Area of the state assured that members of the party in Anambra State are ready for indirect primary, urging the National Working Committee of the party to go ahead with indirect primary for the April 5, governorship primary election of the party in Anambra State.
“The process of picking a representative comes in two valid forms: direct and indirect and Section 84 (2) of the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended) provides that the procedure for nominating candidates by political parties for the various elective positions shall be by: ” direct, indirect primaries or consensus.” argued Sir Awogu.
He urged the party to go ahead with indirect primaries that suits the situation, as members of the party in Anambra State are willing to go with the choice of the party.
