Court stops APC guber primaries in Benue

A Benue State high court sitting in Makurdi restrained the All Progressives’ Congress ( APC) on Friday from conducting its rescheduled governorship primaries. The party, citing logistic reasons, had earlier shifted the primaries from on Thursday to Friday but it now faces another hurdle from one of the aspirants, Prof. Steve Ugbah, who got an ex parte order putting the election on hold for his exclusion from the exercise.

The APC had explained that he was excluded based on the party’s zoning policy which does not accommodate people from Ugbah’s area at the moment. “I see profound merit in this interim order sought to restrain the respondent from conducting the party primary scheduled for later in the day or at any other time pending he determination of the applicant suit No. MHC/ 1996M/ 2014 on notice to the respondents. The said motion on notice will be heard on Tuesday 9th 2014,” Justice Ada Onum ruled.

The motion also restrained the respondents, Comrade Abba Moro, who is the party chairman and the party itself from nominating any flag- bearer to contest the state governorship in the 2015. Weekly Trust reports that at the time of filing this report by 5 pm, accreditation of delegates was still ongoing as party officials claimed they had not been served with any court injunction restraining them from conducting the primaries.

A member of the Governorship Primaries Committee, Bankole Kayode, told journalists that the exercise would go ahead because APC was not aware of the court order.