Some aggrieved Taraba All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirants have said they have chosen to boycott the February 10 primaries of the party in defiance of the supreme court ruling.
Sen. Yusuf Yusuf, the Spokesperson for the aspirants said this at a news conference in Abuja.
Yusuf, who represents Taraba Central in the National Assembly said the planned rerun is in contrast to the apex court’s ruling.
“For the purpose of refreshing your memory, the race to clinch the APC governorship ticket started in 2022 with seven aspirants who obtained expressions of interest and party nomination forms.
“On the day of primaries, when all the aspirants and delegates were meeting unresolved at Shield Hotel Jalingo, for security issues.
“The chairman of the committee Mr. Lawrence Onochukwu was taken to the police headquarters in Jalingo for safety,” he said.
He added that after seeing fake primary election photos on social media, Onochukwu gave a press conference that he never authorized the primary election.
He said that the election will be held tomorrow after resolving all the issues.
Yusuf added that he surprised the other candidates, Sen. Emmanuel Bwacha was declared the winner of the unprecedented governorship election.
“After sorting out all the internal mechanisms in the party to arrest the situation, no effort was made by the leadership to do the right thing.
“That is why it is necessary to take legal action against the party and the recognized winner of the primaries Sen. Emmanuel Bwacha.
“Legal proceedings ended at the apex court and we are proven that there is no governorship primary in Taraba APC,” Yusuf said.
He said that before the case reached the Supreme Court, one of the six candidates left the APC for the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) because of the lack of internal democracy.
He said the other five candidates decided not to leave APC for the intruders, but to stay and fight for their rights and protect democracy.
“After the Supreme Court ruling on February 1, which revoked the primacy of the governor called Bwacha.
“The National Working Committee (NWC) of the party under the chairmanship of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu did not hold any meeting with any candidate either physically or virtually for briefing.
“However, a text message was sent to aspirants, today February 9, followed by social media reports that the primary election is scheduled to be held at Mumuye Hall, Mile 6 Jalingo tomorrow, February 10.
“This is a total and clear violation of the Supreme Court judgment in the David Sabo Kente vs Sen Emmanuel Bwacha case,” Yusuf said.
He added that for the avoidance of doubt, the apex court did not issue orders to other primates after disqualifying the recognized primate who allegedly produced Bwacha.
Yusuf said the apex court granted all the relief requested in court by David Kente except for a re-primary within 14 days.
“As law abiding Nigerians and loyal party men, we are telling the whole world that we will not be part of the illegal primary election as scheduled by the APC Adamu-led NWC,” he said.
This, he said, is mainly because the primacy scheduled by the NWC violates the totality of the supreme court’s verdict which was given unanimously by a five-judge panel.
He wondered why the other candidates were not brought by the party chairman in every process that would enforce fair process and internal democracy.
Yusuf said the APC NWC should be aware of the pending judgment in the case between him and Bwacha scheduled to be delivered by the apex court on February 13.
“Once again we want all the loyal parties to know that whatever illegality will be done in the halls of Mumuye Jalingo tomorrow will be challenged in the competent courts of our country,” Yusuf said.