APC Primary For Jos North/Bassa Bye-Election – Aspirants, Party Members, Stakeholders, And Journalists Stranded At Venue, Lamonde Hotel

Yakubu Busari

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Plateau State bye-election proposed primaries for Jos North/Bassa Federal House of Representative on Tuesday left party members, stakeholders, and journalists stranded at Lamonde Hotel Jos, as they await the arrival of the delegates who have been holed up in some secret locations.

This medium gathered that INEC officials were also not sighted at the time of this report

However, the election which was scheduled for 9 am today is now marred by so much suspicion and uncertainty suspecting that the governor is allegedly bidding for his preferred candidate.

According to a reliable source, it is alleged that each delegate is being offered a hundred thousand naira (N100,000) to vote Hon. Abbey Aku the anointed candidate of the governor, a serving Commissioner of Commerce and Industry in the Lalong administration who has not yet resigned his position from the state executive council as a Commissioner.

Our medium gathered that the security personnel were already on the ground to screen and accredit some of the supporters of the various aspirants before accessing the venue of the primaries.

There is so much reservation amongst the party stalwarts and members present at the venue about the transparency of exercise taking into account the interest of Mr. Governor.

It was revealed that most of the delegates that were hijacked and camped at a secret location, complained that they are still held against their wish and were intimidated to do the governor’s bidding, thus causing a delay in the commencement of the screening exercise. The fear is that the election may be postponed or canceled due to these irregularities.

Some of the very few delegates that were not hijacked could be sighted within the premises waiting for the commencement of the process so they can vote for a candidate of their choice.

So far the heightened presence of thugs who have come to register their support for the popular candidates of their choice has made the atmosphere really tense with fear of the unknown if the process is not transparent and fair.

With the present development, journalists invited to cover the election process are left stranded and confused with some of them leaving and going back to check whether the event has started as the time of filing this report at some minutes after 4 pm.