By Emmanuel Awari-Jalingo
Aspirant for the Jalingo, Yorro and Zing Federal Constituency seat under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Princess Leah Olusiyi Solomon, has expressed concern over the delay in the conduct of the party’s direct primaries earlier scheduled for Friday across Taraba State.
Hon. Leah Solomon raised the alarm shortly after touring five wards in Zing Local Government Area to monitor the commencement of the much-anticipated exercise.
The aspirant alleged that although information available to her indicated that sensitive materials for the conduct of the primaries had arrived in the state, uncertainty remained over when the materials would be distributed to the various local government areas for the exercise to commence.
According to her, hundreds of party supporters and loyalists who trooped out to their various polling centres as early as 8:00 a.m. were left stranded due to the non-arrival of party officials and electoral materials.
She noted that supporters across Jalingo, Yorro and Zing Local Government Areas waited for several hours in anticipation of the arrival of APC returning officers to conduct the exercise.
Hon. Solomon called on the National Chairman of the APC to urgently intervene and address the situation to avoid disenchantment among party faithful and aspirants participating in the process.
The aspirant maintained that she had earlier rejected moves for consensus arrangements in favour of direct primaries because of her commitment to allowing party members decide their preferred candidate through a democratic process.
She reaffirmed the readiness of her supporters to participate peacefully in the primaries whenever the party officials and election materials arrive.
Hon. Solomon further questioned whether a new date would be announced for the conduct of the direct primaries for House of Representatives aspirants in Taraba State if the process fails to hold as scheduled.
Meanwhile, observations from ward collation centres indicated that party members from the ten wards in Zing Local Government Area, eleven wards in Yorro Local Government Area, and ten wards in Jalingo Local Government Area were present as early as 8:00 a.m., waiting to participate in the exercise.
Efforts to obtain official reaction from the APC State Publicity Secretary, Hon. Aaron Artimas, were unsuccessful as calls and inquiries made at the time of filing this report did not receive a response.