The six-member Primaries Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia on Monday rescheduled the governorship primaries of the party for Tuesday, Oct. 2.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the governorship primaries were earlier scheduled for Saturday but shifted to Sunday and later rescheduled for Monday.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr David Iyoha, announced the new date at the end of the meeting between the committee and stakeholders of the party, including the aspirants at the party secretariat in Umuahia on Monday.
Iyoha said that the committee arrived Umuahia on Monday and went straight into a meeting with the stakeholders, where the decision to postpone the exercise to Tuesday was taken.
“We were supposed to to be in Abia yesterday (Sunday) but could not leave Abuja due to some logistics problem,” he said.
He said that the postponement became imperative because it was late in the day to conduct the exercise, considering that some local governments were far-flung from the capital city.
He said that the distribution of sensitive materials would commence at the party’s secretariat by about 7 a.m.
He also said that accreditation and voting would begin simultaneously from 8 a.m. in areas close to Umuahia.
“We are going to adopt direct primaries as directed by the National Executive Committee.
“It is not for members to line up behind aspirants as practised in the past, there is going to be voting.
“We have ballot papers and other materials for the exercise and people will cast their votes for their choice aspirants,” he said.
The chairman said that the results would be collated at the ward, local government and state levels at the end of the exercise.
He promised that the process would be smooth, free, fair and credible.
Iyoha further urged party members “to be peaceful and law abiding, before, during and after the exercise.” (NAN)