By Ikenna Oluka
As some All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirants in Ebonyi state continued to kick against consensus candidate for the party’s primaries in next year’s general election, one of the aspirants, Hon. Kelechi Chima yesterday said what should be the interest of the aspirants should be rancor-free primaries and not the anticipated method for the primary election.
Chima, a former House of Representatives’ member, who represented Ohaozara, Onicha and Ivo federal constituency between 1999 and 2003, explained that consensus primaries was a unanimous decision adopted by the state working committee of the party during its meeting with all the stakeholders of the governorship aspirants in attendance.
He said: “National Working Committee of the party gave every state the opportunity or method they like in their primaries. Some states like Lagos opted for direct primaries, Kano state also said they want to do primaries.
“In Ebonyi state, in our own case we said we want to do consensus. When consensus fails, we will go for indirect and that is what we resolved. So, we didn’t opt for direct primaries.
“As party men, what is important to us is to adopt a mode that will be rancor-free. The decision of the party in Ebonyi to use consensus is better and whoever God says will win, will win whether you use direct or indirect primaries.”