By Matthew Ajai-Kume
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Benue State Gubernatorial Zoning Committee has resolved and granted Jechira Intermediate Area Zone C Senatorial District of the state permission to pursue the mandate to be the party’s flag bearer in the 2023 Governorship Election.
According to a statement signed by state Secretary of APC and Secretary of the Party’s Governorship Zoning Committee, Paul Biam, and made available to newsmen Sunday; “The Benue state APC Gubernatorial Zoning Committee has announced far reaching resolutions taken after it rose from its sitting yesterday.”
It said the the zoning committee was constituted as a fall out from the recent two-day retreat for all governorship aspirants on the platform of our party.
The statement read in part: “The retreat was to enable all aspirants, in collaboration with party elders and members of the state working committee interact with each other with the sole aim of aggregating opinions from all participants towards genuinely developing modalities that will assist in reducing the number of governorship aspirants as we commence the process of having a candidate to compete in the forthcoming general elections.
“The committee painstakingly reviewed all issues as it relates to both intermediate and zonal areas that have benefitted from governorship positions since the return of democracy in 1978.
“The committee came to understand that Kwande intermediate area that is also parading very qualified aspirants to the governorship position have had it twice, having won for the first time and was also reelected for a second time and was indeed sworn in as against their brothers from Jechira intermediate area that won only once and were able to do below half of its term of four years.
“We also acknowledged the fact that Zone C which is an integral part of the state has never benefitted the position since the return of democracy in 1978.”
The statement maintained that “Based on the following analysis as it relates to the issue of governorship, the committee came to a conclusion considered to be the most fair in the circumstances, to this end, the following resolutions were adopted by the zoning committee of our party;
“Based on the above reasons, the Kwande intermediate area in Zone A should shield their ambition in the pursuit of getting a candidate to run the 2023 governorship primaries on the platform of the APC;
“In view of this, both Jechira intermediate area and Zone C, based on the analysis has been granted express permission to continue in their pursuit of producing a candidate for the party.”
The committee went on to appeal to those affected, for the interest of the party, to cooperate with this new development and regret any inconvenience the decision might have caused them.
It could be recalled that, APC state executives, stakeholders, local government executives, gubernatorial aspirants and Leader of the party in the state, the Minister for Special Duties and Inter-governmental Affairs, Senator George Akume recently met in Abuja, for a retreat, in order to get smooth modalities for the victory of the party at the forthcoming 2023 General Elections.