Conduct fresh primaries or refund our money, Aspirants tell Bauchi APC

All may not have been heard about the controversies trailing the conduct of the primaries of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in Bauchi State as all the aspirants for the State House of Assembly seats under the aegis of the ‘Bauchi State House of Assembly Aspirants Forum’ who lost in the recent party primaries have called on the national leadership of the party to either conduct fresh primary elections or refund to them their expression of interest and nomination fees as a matter of urgency.

While speaking with Journalists on Tuesday, spokesperson of the Forum Aishatu Haruna alias ‘Gimbiya’ who contested for the Zungur/Galambi state constituency for the State Assembly lamented that “no election was conducted in the State but the party had allegedly announced the names of its favourite aspirants as flag bearers of the party and submitted the list to INEC.”

The aggrieved politician added that: “They sold forms to us, screened and cleared us to run without telling us that we had any problems, but they didn’t provide a fair playing ground to all the aspirants during the primary elections. In fact, no election had taken place, they only nominated candidates for the party.”

“We are therefore appealing to the National headquarters of the party and President Muhammadu Buhari to wade into the matter with a view to ensuring that justice is done to us. What we demand is that the elections should be cancelled or else, the party should refund to us all the monies we spent,” She stated.

The aspirants who revealed that the State Governor, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar had after the outcome of the primary elections promised to meet with aggrieved aspirants decried that up to this moment he did not redeem his pledge but sent one of his Advisers to talk to them.

“Up to now, we were not told when the Governor will sit with us. He should sit with all the aspirants concerned so that we can tell him our grievances. If we do not hear from him within the next few days, we will decide our next line of action,” she threatened.

It would be recalled that controversies have continued to trail the conduct and outcome of all the primary elections of the APC in Bauchi State a development that has caused disaffection among members of the party in the State with many of them calling for cancellation of the exercise or the party risk losing the 2019 general elections in the State.