The Benue State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has disqualified 59 aspirants from participating in the party’s forthcoming House of Assembly primaries over alleged violations of party guidelines and constitutional provisions.
NewsWatch Nigeria reports that the development followed the screening of 146 aspirants by the party’s House of Assembly Screening Committee.
Out of the total number screened, 86 aspirants were cleared to contest in the primaries or emerge through consensus arrangements, while the remaining aspirants were disqualified.
A copy of the screening report obtained by journalists and signed by the committee chairman, Auwalu Ishiye, and secretary, Tijjani Abdullahi, stated that the affected aspirants were disqualified for “non-compliance with party guidelines and party constitution.”
Despite the disqualifications, the party said affected aspirants had been granted the opportunity to appeal the decision.
Speaking on the development, the State Organising Secretary of the party, James Ornguga, disclosed that the Screening Appeal Committee had already commenced hearing petitions from dissatisfied aspirants.
According to him, many of the affected aspirants had already submitted formal appeals for reconsideration.
“The committee entrusted with the responsibility had already started its work because unsuccessful candidates have the right of appeal. In fact, they have already filed their appeals,” he said.
Ornguga explained that the party deployed two separate committees to the state, one for the screening exercise and another for appeals.
“The party sent two committees to the state. There is the Screening Committee and the Screening Appeal Committee.
“So, the Screening Appeal Committee, headed by Alhaji Lawal Abubakar, sat today (Tuesday), and they have received petitions from people who felt dissatisfied with the process,” he added.
Document Discrepancies Behind Disqualifications
The APC chieftain explained that most of the issues leading to the disqualification of aspirants stemmed from discrepancies in the documents submitted during screening.
According to him, the appeal committee would carefully compare the petitions with the original documents submitted by the aspirants before taking a final decision.
“Since most of these problems arose from the documents that the aspirants presented, they are going to match the petitions with their own files containing the documents as submitted to them,” he stated.
He assured that aspirants who were wrongly disqualified would be reinstated after due verification.
“And if there are people who actually did well and do not have issues but were unjustly disqualified, their names will be published tomorrow to continue,” Ornguga added.
Defending the exercise, the organising secretary insisted that the screening was conducted transparently and without bias.
He maintained that the party had no intention of witch-hunting any aspirant.
“The committee is working on that already. While in the hall, I think about 30 people who came to complain. So, if in the end there is merit in their presentations, they will be cleared.
“So, the party holds no grudge against them. There are simple issues that if you don’t obey, you run into crisis at a time like this,” he said.
Ornguga further identified non-payment of party dues by nominators, an inadequate number of nominators, age discrepancies, and inconsistencies in academic qualifications as some of the major reasons aspirants were screened out.
He explained that all nominators are expected to be financial members of the party.
“Like it is expected that all the people nominating you for this position must be financial members of the party, meaning they must have paid their party dues.
“Hence, if somebody who is not a financial member nominates you and you are unable to bring evidence that he paid his dues, you can be disqualified,” he stated.
He also disclosed that aspirants were required to have at least 120 nominators to qualify for the exercise.
“There is provision for about 120 nominators. So, if you have less than that, it could also be a ground for your disqualification.
“Some of them have disparities in their ages. Some have inconsistencies in their qualifications. And the committee did a very diligent job and arrived at that. They are not witchhunting anybody,” he added.
