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The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State has fixed party primaries for Monday February 19, 2018 to enable delegates pick candidates for all the chairmanship and councillorship seats across the state ahead of tge local councils elections scheduled for May 12, 2018.
The State party Chairman, Chief Akin Oke, who addressed reporters at tge APC headquarters in Oke-Ado, Ibadan on Friday, said the primaries would be strictly guided by the party’s constitution to ensure a transparent and hitch-free exercise.
He said a five-man appeal committee had been set up to handle grievances arising from the primaries.
On how the process woukd unfold, the party, in a statement, said: “For the councillorship primaries, all registered party members would gather at their ward headquarters to carry out the process of nominating one out of the available number of aspirants and this is expected to take place between 8am and 12noon. It is expected that aspirants and their supporters would play game according to the rule and ensure that peace reigned all through.
“Between 2pm and 5pm on the same day, delegates already specified in the APC constitution would converge on the local government council secretariat or any other location endorsed by all the stakeholders to pick the best among the all the aspirants for each of the 33 local government council areas and the 35 Local Council Development Areas (LCDA) in the state.
“Meanwhile, consensus option shall be encouraged where possible as this is clearly enshrined in the party’s constitution. In addition to the deployment of competent hands as electoral officers, the party has also invited relevant partners such as OYSIEC, security agencies and the press to monitor the exercise throughout the state.
“Having put all necessary machinery in place to guarantee a level-playing field for all the aspirants, we anticipate a successful exercise to shore up our rating as the best in terms of allowing internal democracy and the Chief Akin Oke-led executive committee of Oyo APC owes a duty to eulogize Sen. Abiola Ajimobi who has created an enabling environment for the party to hold this particular exercise.”
There are currently 660 wards across the state. The creation of 35 LCDAs increased the number from 351 to 660.