…CATHOLIC PRIEST LEADS IN 15 LGA SO FAR COUNTED
Attah Ede, Makurdi
A suspended Priest, Rev. Father, Hycinth Alia is coasting home to victory in the ongoing gubernatorial primaries of the All Progress Congress in Benue State.
The Rev Father has so far polled 196,592 while Dr Mathias Byuan has =109, 570 and Ode with 68,278.
However, collation of results of the governorship primary is still on going at the party Secretariat.
Meanwhile governorship primaries has run into crisis on Friday with the use of direct primaries by the party leadership.
The Network gathered that the state chapters went into factions and had parallel congresses while others boycotted the polls entirely.
It was further learned that the party’s factional crisis has continued to deepen.
The ruling party is currently battling crises in so many Local Government Areas including Ado, Konshisha, Gboko, Ogbadibo, Makurdi, Tarka, Vandeikya, Katsina-Ala and Otukpo where factions are battling for supremacy.
It was gathered that some aspirants and other members of the party faulted the method of direct primaries used for the governorship and Assembly primaries.
While opposing factions in some local government areas in the state held parallel primaries, aggrieved aspirants and party chieftains boycotted the elections, threatening legal action.
The former national chairman of the main opposition party, PDP and now, APC gubernatorial aspirant, Chief Bernabas Gemade from Konshisha Local Government of the state, said he would not be party to direct primary, saying embarking on the exercise using direct primaries would amount to “exercise in futility” .
Other aggrieved members including the Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Mike Aodoakaa, Dr Mathias Byua, Sam Ode, Chief Steve Lawani, Terlumun Akpatu and few others, were absent from the primary.
The aspirants in separate press statements, said the party’s Benue State Governorship Primary Election Committee and its screening committee did not do what the national leadership of the party asked them to do.
They threatened to seek legal action should the leadership of the party fail to address the issue.
Both Gemade and Aoadoakaa said the process that led to the adoption of direct method leading to emerging of Rev. Father Alia was not democratic.
As the time of filling this report, the APC in the state is still considering whether to cancel the direct primary and go for indirect primaries.