PRIMARIES of the All Progressives Congress (APC) preparatory to the local government elections in Oyo state, earlier scheduled to hold tomorrow (Monday) will no longer hold.
The party had last week asked all its registered members to, on Monday, converge onwards’ headquarters across the 33 local government areas and 35 local council development areas to nominate their aspirants from which delegates will select candidates for Chairmanship and Councillorship seats.
Speaking with Nigerian Tribune on Sunday, the party’s publicity secretary, Mr Olawale Sadare, said the decision of APC to shift its primaries to a yet-to-be-announced date was because the party was yet to get documents relating to the new delineation of wards from the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC).
He also pointed to fillers that the OYSIEC would further extend its timetable to enable parties to carry out processes to nominate their candidates for the election.
OYSIEC had earlier revised its timetable owing to complaints by political parties and stakeholders on the issue of delineation of wards in the 33 local government areas and 35 local council development areas, but mandated parties to conclude their primaries by Wednesday, February 23, 2018.
Speaking further, Sadare maintained that candidates of the party for May 12, 2018, local government elections will emerge from a process of primaries or by consensus, allaying notions that the APC would only handpick candidates.
“We have not cancelled the process, but fillers from OYSIEC indicate that they have again shifted the deadline given to political parties to complete the process of nomination of their candidates, that is, party primaries.
“They cited the fact that they have not given us the new outlook of wards delineation of wards. With the delineation, we will now have more than the original 351 wards.