APC names Jigawa governor primary election committee chairman

Boroffice urges unity among aspirants

The National Secretariat of All Progressives Congress (APC) has named Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, as chairman of Saturday’s governorship primary.

A statement made available to journalists in Akure yesterday by the State Director of Media and Publicity, Mr. Steve Otaloro, also disclosed that the advance team of the governor arrived the state yesterday.

According to him: “The governor’s advance team which will be led by Alhaji Ali Magashi has been sent to liaise with the Ondo State chapter of the party in preparation for the conduct of the election and will arrive Akure today, August 31, 2016.

“The chairman of the committee and governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Mohammed will arrive on Friday, September 2, 2016 to commence the primary election exercise.”

Otaloro, who announced further that the election, which had been postponed twice, would hold on Saturday with the accreditation of voters and other processes, further said: “The exercise is billed to take place at the International Conference Centre at Alagbaka, Akure, while accreditation of voters will take place at three designated centres in Akure, the state capital, one for each senatorial district.”

Meanwhile, a governorship aspirant of the APC in Ondo State, Prof. Roberts Ajayi Boroffice, has appealed to all aspirants in the party to close ranks after the primary elections scheduled to hold this Saturday.

Boroffice, a second-term senator representing Ondo North District, also told The Guardian yesterday that the unity of the aspirants after the emergence of a candidate would go a long way to prepare the party for a successful gubernatorial election on November 26.

According to the senator, who hosted a reconciliatory meeting of all leading aspirants in his Abuja home a fortnight ago prior to the group’s meeting with the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party, said: “All of us must realise that we have a responsibility as individuals and as a group to ensure that our party is strong enough to contest the election.”

“What we need at this point in time is to sink our differences and work together for the success of our party in the coming election. The post-primary collaboration is also essential to unify all members of our party in the state.

“We have an arduous task in liberating our people from the misrule of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the misfortunes it has brought on us. We can win this battle if we stay together and not divided because our strength lies in our unity.”

Boroffice, a professor of Human Genetics, also urged those who will conduct the Saturday exercise to do so “with the fear of God and oversee a process that will allow for the emergence of the choice of the majority of the delegates. If everybody observes a clean, free, fair and transparent election, nobody will raise objections and our unity will be guaranteed.”

Speaking on the controversial list of delegates that would determine the candidate, Boroffice said: “As far as we are concerned here, there is no problem with the delegates’ list from the national secretariat of our party in Abuja.

“Besides, Abuja is the custodian of the list and they have given it to us for our preparations. We are going to follow the list because we believe the process is going to be transparent and fair.”