2019: Plateau Deputy Governor says indirect primaries cost effective.
Prof Sonni Tyoden, the Plateau Deputy Governor, on Wednesday said that indirect primaries were cost effective compared to direct method.
Tyoden said this on the sideline of an expanded stakeholders meeting of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Jos on Wednesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that stakeholders at the meeting unanimously adopted indirect method for the primaries ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The deputy governor said direct primaries involved mass movement of people and materials which could gulp a large chunk of human and capital resources.
“This meeting is very important because we are here to deliberate and come out with a position pertaining the conduct of our primaries.
“As you have been rightly informed, we are going with indirect method based on the peculiarities of the state and our assessment of its merits which outweigh its demerits.
“Indirect primaries is cost effective because when you are going for a direct primaries, it is going to involve a large movement of people from the various polling units to the ward centres and in terms of logistics, it will really cost a lot of money,” he said
Mr Latep Dabang, the state APC chairman, cited security constraints as the rationale the party in the state adopted the indirect method to conduct its primaries.
“Aside the huge cost involved, you all know that we have security challenge on the plateau. We don’t want to put people’s lives at risk and that is we went for the indirect option.
“You cannot really say when these primaries will begin and end and you can’t guarantee security of lives and property of the people, particularly with the sporadic attacks going on in the state,” he said
Dabang also said the party lacked updated records of the all of its registered members and going with direct primaries will disenfranchise a many its members, particularly those who recently defected to the party.
He assured that the party would give all aspirants a level playing ground, adding that the primaries would be free, fair and credible.
