The All Progressives Congress (APC) has clarified the controversy surrounding the mode of primary election for the general polls in 2019.

The party gave the explanation in a statement signed on Friday by its acting National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena.

It stressed that the clarification was necessary because some of the resolutions reached on Thursday during its National Executive Committee (NEC) were being misinterpreted.

The full statement read:

The 30th August 2018 resolution of the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Executive Committee (NEC) on the mode of the Party’s Primary Election has been subject to different and misleading interpretations.

We wish to make the following clarifications on NEC’s resolutions:

Primary elections into all elective offices shall be by the direct and indirect election or by consensus.

The use of the direct and indirect primaries shall, however, depend on the peculiarity and need of a given state.

In each case, the State Executive Committee (SEC) shall in consultation with candidates and other critical stakeholders of the party in a given state, identify and forward for the consideration and approval by the National Working Committee (NWC) for the mode of election to be adopted.

The adopted mode shall now be applied to all categories of the party’s primary elections i.e. State Assembly, Senate, House of Representatives and for the governorship elections.

The request for the selection of mode of election must be signed by majority of the Executive Committee in attendance at the meeting where such resolution is reached.

NEC resolved to adopt the direct primary option for the presidential primary.

•Text (excluding headline) sourced from a Channels TV report

Update news