All Progressives Congress (APC) has disqualified 14 aspirants from participating in its House of Representatives primary elections scheduled to hold nationwide on Saturday.
Gatekeepers News reports that the party disclosed this in a statement issued by its national publicity secretary, Felix Morka.
Among those barred from the primaries are Adefisoye Tajudeen for Idanre/Ifedore federal constituency in Ondo state, Olusegun Ategbole and Seun Ajongbolo for Akoko south-east/south-west federal constituency, Arowole Samuel for Owo/Ose, and Morufu Ibrahim for Akoko north-east/north-west.
Others affected include Bashir Bello for Darazo/Ganjuwa federal constituency in Bauchi state, Idu Igariwe for Afikpo-Edda federal constituency in Ebonyi state, Sanni Ogembe for Okene/Ogori/Magongo federal constituency in Kogi state, alongside several aspirants from Rivers state.
The party said the aspirants participated in the screening exercise but were not cleared by the screening committees. According to the APC, the exercise was conducted in line with the party’s procedures and guidelines.
In a separate clarification, the APC also stated that party members do not need to provide proof of membership dues payment before voting in the ongoing primary elections. The party explained that all duly registered members are eligible to participate in the exercise.
Morka noted that proof of dues payment only applied to aspirants and their nominators during the submission of nomination forms and the screening process. APC urged members to disregard contrary reports and participate peacefully in the primaries.
