2019: Aggrieved aspirants berate APC over automatic ticket option

Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who sought the party's
senatorial ticket in Adamawa State rose Wednesday against the party's
policy of handing out its ticket to some people by endorsement.

The aggrieved members claimed they were robbed of the chance of fair
participation in National Assembly primary election last month.

An incumbent senator, Binta Masi Garba (Adamawa North Senatorial
Zone), was one of the APC members who got the party's ticket by
adoption for the 2019 election, and an aspirant, Anna Sini, who was to
contest with her and some others for the party's ticket, was one of
many aggrieved APC members who condemned the policy Wednesday evening
while making presentations to the APC National Peace and
Reconciliation Meeting held in Yola.

By the adoption rather than direct or indirect primary election, Binta
Garba and Ahmed Mo'Allayidi (the serving Adamawa South senator) got
ticket of the APC on a platter of gold, which the critics said was a
strange way of rewarding some party members to the detriment of
others.

Anna Sini said, "Nobody should be rewarded for any reason with
automatic ticket. We have all worked hard in our different ways to
develop the party and we all deserve reward. Everybody should be given
a chance to participate in a credible election process to pick party
candidates. Those who lose in duly conducted election will be content
to accept their defeat."

Stressing that the automatic ticket given to Binta, who was to be her
opponent in a scheduled primary election caused her much pain.

Sini said, "Our scheduled primary was cancelled hours before the fixed
time for it. We were busy campaigning and preparing for the election,
spending our money and energy, only for those who did not even bother
to campaign to be given automatic tickets."

She asked the APC National Reconciliation Committee to work at
resolving the issue and restoring the confidence of APC members in the
party.

Another aspirant, who was also to contest in the primary for the
Adamawa North Senatorial ticket, Idris Ahmed, held the same view,
stressing that it was not fair to be denied participation in an
election that they had spent months and millions of naira preparing
for.

Nasarawa State Governor, Umaru Al-Makura who heads the APC Peace and
Reconciliation Committee for the Northeast and who chaired the Adamawa
and Taraba states meeting in Yola Wednesday, assured the aggrieved
party members that their grievances would be treated with fairness.