By Shola Abayomi.
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Adams Oshiomhole, has advised governorship aspirants in the party vying for the 2019 Kogi and Bayelsa guber polls to shelve their ambition if they do not meet up with the one year membership requirement.
Oshiomhole, who made the disclosure on Wednesday night while inaugurating the governorship screening committee, stated that only those who have spent at least one year in the party are qualified to contest for the APC guber ticket.
He, however added that others who have spent less than a year in the party would require a waiver from the National Working Committee (NWC) to contest.
The APC chairman also warned that any prospective aspirant who has not contributed financially to the party for the last one year would not be eligible to vie for the governorship of Bayelsa and Kogi states.
The new directive might pose a threat to the governorship ambition of a former Resident Electoral Commissioner, Frankland Briyal, who joined the APC a few weeks ago after resigning from his position at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
At yesterday’s inauguration of a 14-member screening panel, headed by Senator Hope Uzordinma, Oshiomhole noted that it would be unfair to hand the APC’s flag to “those who just joined the party when there are well entrenched members of the party angling for the governorship seats in the aforementioned states.”
He maintained that the NWC of the party reserves the right to grant waivers to any of the aspirants who does not meet the party’s guidelines, adding that the August 29 primaries would take place simultaneously in Lokoja and Yenagoa.