APC suspends Kwara governorship primary mid-way, postpones exercise

The National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) abruptly suspended the Kwara State governorship primary election on Thursday and postponed it until Friday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the APC chairman in Kwara State, Sunday Fagbemi, confirmed the postponement mid-way into the exercise on Thursday in Ilorin, the state capital.

Mr Fagbemi said the party’s national leadership directed that the exercise be shifted, though no reason was given for the postponement.

“We do not have details for the cancellation other than the fact that the team from the national office came and instructed that the election should be held tomorrow,” he said.

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Meanwhile, eight governorship aspirants on Thursday reportedly withdrew from the contest for the governorship ticket for Abdulfatai Yahaya Seriki, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s preferred successor.

This followed a decision reached after a strategic meeting with Mr Seriki and other party stalwarts on Wednesday evening.

The aspirants who declared their support for Mr Seriki are Salako Oluwatoyin, Ahmad Mahmoud, Wale Sulaiman, a professor, Mohammed Bio, Toyin Alabi, and Hajiya Aisha Patigi.

Others are Ibrahim Oloriegbe and the Speaker of the Kwara House of Assembly, Yakubu Danladi-Salihu.

The meeting was said to have ended with a commitment to party unity, peaceful conduct of the primary and continuity of the AbdulRazaq administration’s programmes.

Meanwhile, party members, including physically challenged persons, had trooped out across the Kwara Central Senatorial District for the exercise as early as 8 a.m., with voting commencing around noon.

At Gambari Ward II, Karumo in Ilorin East Local Government Area, a visually impaired APC member, Abubakar Gobir, said he and his colleagues came out to exercise their civic rights.

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Another visually impaired member, Rufai Yusuf, said they attended the exercise with their families in support of Seriki.

At Adewole and Alanamu Wards in Ilorin West Local Government Area, supporters of Seriki were seen chanting solidarity slogans in support of the aspirant.

In Kwara South, an APC member, Alhaji Adebayo Yakeen, popularly known as Baba Blue, alleged that electoral officers were absent at Ganmo/Idofian ward during the exercise.

According to him, party members organised themselves, counted votes and forwarded the results to party leaders in the state.

However, Busari Lukman, also known as Leko, dismissed the claim, saying the ward chairman had only gone to the state secretariat to collect electoral materials.

(NAN)