 has flayed the passage by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Senate of direct primary for the nomination of candidates for election in all political parties){kind=link}
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has flayed the passage by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Senate of direct primary for the nomination of candidates for election in all political parties.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, while reacting to the development, on Tuesday, said the PDP was rolling back our democracy.
Ologbondiyan described the passage as a retrogressive provision that sought to wipe off all the gains achieved in our electoral practice since 1999.
The party also said the decision by the APC-controlled Senate was a “humongous blow” to the development of democratic norms and “a plot to introduce anarchy” during internal party elections “as currently obtainable in the APC.”
The PDP added that the provision was aimed at increasing the costs of nomination procedures thereby surrendering the processes to money bags against the wishes and aspiration of Nigerians.
The party, therefore, urged the Senate to immediately deploy its appropriate legislative instruments to reverse itself on the direct primary as “it is not operable and does not reflect the wishes and aspiration of the majority of Nigerians.”
“Our party makes bold to state that with the exception of the APC, which intends to deploy looted funds in a future election, hardly will there be any political party that will be able to raise the cost of conducting internal elections under a direct primary process.
“This is why the decision of the Senate has elicited widespread rejection from Nigerians across the board,” he added.