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The All Progressives Congress, APC, is holding its governorship primary election rerun in 137 Council Wards of 11 Local Government Areas, LGAs, of Benue state.
The election is holding sequel to the recent Court of Appeal ruling which nullified the election of Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia as the candidate of the party and ordered the rerun election in 11 out of the 23 Local Government Areas, LGAs, of the state.
The affected LGAs where the court ordered the rerun includes Gboko, Gwer- East, Gwer-West, Guma, Katsina-Ala, Logo, Makurdi, Otukpo, Ukum, Tarka and Vandeikya.
The Five-man Committee constituted by the national leadership of the party for the election is headed by Senator Basheer Lado while other members of the Committee includes Baba Liman, Yakubu Adamu and Ahmed Attah, while Margaret Duru is to serve as Secretary of the Committee.
The party also constituted the Rescheduled Primary Election Appeal Panel to handle any contentious issues that could arise during the election.
The Chairman of the Appeal Panel is Umar Kolo, while Dr Kabir Habib and Engr Umar Ibrahim will serve as member and secretary respectively.
Meanwhile 12 aspirants are expected to participate in re-run. The Organising Secretary of the party in the state, James Ornguga who made this known while speaking to newsmen in Makurdi shortly after receiving the Chairman and members of the elections Committee at the APC secretariat Thursday in Makurdi, explained that of the 13 initial aspirants one of them had defected to the Labour Party, LP.
Also, the Benue State Chairman of the APC, Austin Agada said some of the aspirants had declared their intentions to withdraw from the contest and support Rev. Fr. Alia.
He said though the national secretariat of the party had accepted their decision, it requested the affected aspirants to declare their intentions to withdraw from the race in writing.
He assured members of the party in the affected LGAs that he was in touch with all the stakeholders adding that adequate security arrangements had been put in place to ensure a hitch-free exercise.
Earlier, Chairman of the Five-man, Committee, Senator Lado, represented by a member of the Committee, Baba Liman noted that the elections would be by direct primaries.
