Twelve aspirants would contest the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary rerun that will be held in 137 wards in 11 local government areas in Benue State on Thursday.
APC State Organising Secretary, James Ornguga, told newsmen in Makurdi shortly after receiving the chairman and members of the rescheduled primary elections committee at the party’s secretariat, explained that initially, 13 aspirants contested during the primary election but that one of the aspirants had defected to the Labour Party.
Austin Agada, the state Chairman of APC in Benue, who corroborated the report of the organising secretary, said some of the aspirants had declared their intentions to withdraw from the contest and support Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia.
Agada revealed that though the national secretariat of the party had accepted their decision, it requested the affected aspirants to declare their intentions to withdraw from the race in writing.
Chairman of the Benue State Governorship Rescheduled Primary Elections Committee, Senator Basheer Lado, said the elections would be conducted in 137 wards of the 11 LGAs of the state.
Lado, who was represented by a member of the committee, Baba Liman, said the elections would be by direct primaries.
He hoped that the committee would announce the results of the election by midnight on Thursday.
Baba Liman, Yakubu Adamu and Ahmed Attah,are other members of the committee Margaret Duru serving as Secretary.
The APC constituted the Rescheduled Primary Election Appeal Panel to handle any contentious issues that may arise during the election.
Chairman of the Appeal Panel is Umar Kolo, while Dr Kabir Habib and Engr Umar Ibrahim will serve as member and secretary respectively.
The Appeal Court ordered the rerun..
