WHO CONDUCTS AND ANNOUNCES PARTY PRIMARIES ?

By Williams Eghebi 

This question is the type of question put before a toddler who does not fancy going to school. To encourage the toddler, all manners of inducements are put before him or her. 

Primaries are entirely the responsibilities of the political parties where the party chairman plays pivotal and dominant roles with the support of the other executive members at each of the levels. 

The National Executive sends a team, in most cases between five and seven to each state. Each team meets the State Executive on arrival at the state party Secretariat or any other approved venue. 

The State Executive introduces the local government Returning Officers to the National Team. 

The local government Returning Officer in turn moves to the local government party Secretariat to meet the Executives there where the Ward Presiding Officers are introduced to him or her. 

The Ward Presiding Officer goes to the ward with the support of the ward executives to conduct the primaries in line with approved guidelines. 

The Ward Presiding Officer returns with the result to the local government party Secretariat for collation of results. 

The local government Returning Officer on completion of collation of results returns to the state Secretariat for collation of the results at the state level. The team from the national Secretariat takes the results to Abuja. 

If the primary is for state assembly members, collation ends at the state constituency level(local government area). If it's for the House of Representatives, it ends at the federal constituency level. When it is for the Senate, collation stops at the senatorial level. When the primary is for the governorship, it ends at the state level. And if it's a presidential primary, the collation takes place at the national Secretariat or any approved venue in Abuja. 

Note that at the collation level, the results are announced as the aspirants agents are given copies of the results at that level. 

Note also that no primary holds without the presence of the party executives at that level. For instance, primary at the ward must have the presence of the ward executives. 

The online reports that the results of senatorial primaries would be announced in Abuja seem not to be correct as it is impossible to ferry all the aspirants' agents to Abuja to witness and sign the results and return to their respective wards within 24 hours to take part in the House of Assembly primaries tomorrow.  

 In any case, there is no verifiable document released by the national leadership of the party through the already established channels to support the social media charade on the issue. 

The APC is not aware of any parallel executive at any level.  

 There cannot be any parallel primaries anywhere. 

Finally, it is instructive to state that at every level where agents sign the result sheet, the result is made public(announced) by either the presiding or returning officer.