Contestants under the umbrella of 2018 All Progressives Congress (APC) Convention Contestants’ Forum, have raised alarm and expressed concerns over how they were sidelined not to win the various positions contested for in the last convention, having fulfilled all requirements recommended by the party.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, the Chairman of the forum, Honorable Isa Umar said: “We were officially screened and issued certificate of clearance to contest all positions within the party structure at the National and Zonal levels in the 2018 National Convention which held on Saturday, 23rd June, at the Eagle Square.”

Isa said further that: “We campaigned vigorously across the 36 states and FCT. We used resources in promoting our candidature and the image of the party in social and media, but the reason why some of our members did not win remains in the history page of APC National Convention Committee.

“We exhibited the most commendable act of total loyalty to the party and leaders across the six geopolitical zones which, to a large extent, ensured smooth and conclusive convention against the permutations and expectations of pundits in the opposition.”

The members who are grossly pained ,therefore, called on the leadership of the party and President Muhammadu Buhari to quickly settle the members, implement the Report of the Election Appeal Committee, and respond to their correspondences so that they can collectively focus on ensuring victory for the APC in the forthcoming general elections.

Also speaking at the briefing, the Interim Secretary of the Forum, Frank Ossai admitted that: "it is very obvious that some of our members won and some did not for reasons best known to us. And our position is that, our leadership must recognise us as a force they need to reckon with and respond to our correspondence."

He added: "As grassroots mobilisers, we call on the party to bring us together and not focus on the opposition parties. APC must harmonise us to forge ahead in this journey".

Sam Oburu, another contestant, while expressing his grievance on the development, said that: "we are pained because our issues are yet to be addressed. We all bought forms and were screened. But it is painful that our pictures were not even on the ballot boxes and papers. Actually, we cannot hide the fact that we are seriously pained by this, yet we did not break away from the party.

"The situation now is, our concerns need to be quickly met. We have an election to win in 2019 and there is no time to waste", he added.

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