The All Progressives Congress (APC) says it plans to use direct primaries to select its candidate for the September 21 Edo governorship poll.

Duro Meseko, the APC deputy national publicity secretary, said this when he spoke with journalists on Tuesday in Abuja at the party’s national secretariat.

He said this was part of resolutions at the end of the National Working Committee consultative meeting with Edo stakeholders.

He urged the stakeholders to unite in trimming down the number of aspirants already in the race.

Mr Meseko urged aspirants to play by the rules, advising them to explore internal party dispute resolution mechanisms instead of dragging the party to court at the slightest opportunity.

“It was resolved that for the smooth running of the party, all members should ensure strict compliance with their financial obligations to the party in line with its constitution.

“The NWC also resolved that for want of time, the e-registration for fresh members be conducted after the primaries in order not to derail its smooth conduct.

“The stakeholders were urged to promote unity within the ranks of the party in order to go into the election as one family bound by progressive ideals and fully geared to reclaim its mandate in Edo,” said Mr Meseko.

Former APC national chair Adams Oshiomhole said democracy based on popular participation might be more difficult but could not be faulted.

He said this was because it allowed for the building of consensus, conflict and resolution of the same with an understanding that the majority would have their way while the minority had their say.

Mr Oshiomhole said the APC was determined to reclaim the state in the September election.

“We are determined to reclaim Edo. I used the word reclaim because Edo is ours. We lost it due to several factors, some of which were caused by some APC elements,” said Mr Oshiomhole.

The former Edo governor said the party stakeholders had initiated a dialogue among the 29 aspirants to have healthy competition.

He lauded APC national chair Abdullahi Ganduje for his leadership role and prayed that his effort would lead to victory in Edo.

Mr said his immediate target was to increase the number of governors and lawmakers on the party’s platform.

“To do that, we have to work throughout the year; traditionally, especially in developing countries, political parties are very weak institutions. But we want to make APC a strong institution.

“Therefore, according to our programme, we are working throughout the year, not until when there are elections, and after elections, the party becomes dead,” Mr Oshiomhole explained. “We have to improve on our internal democracy, deepen and widen it.”

Mr Oshiomhole tasked party members with the need to understand the party manifesto, rules, regulations and philosophy.

“We need to move toward having a party ideology so that we will not be an ordinary political association whereby everybody can come in just to win the election,” said the former governor.

He also mentioned that party members have to believe in its doctrine and work toward increasing its followership.

“So internal democracy is very important, we have to be transparent and at the same time, we have to also adopt a guided democracy where we can discuss issues so that we limit if possible the number of contests,” Mr Oshiomhole stated.

(NAN)