Confusion in Kaduna APC, as El-Rufai rejects automatic ticket for Sani

Despite the automatic ticket given to Senator Shehu Sani of Kaduna Central by the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), a team of APC Senatorial Committee, led by Prof Eddy Floyd yesterday conducted the National and House of Assemblies primaries in the state, though Sani did not participate in the exercise.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, urged people in the state to disregard “fake documents making the rounds” that the party had cleared Uba Sani, the Political Adviser to Governor el-Rufai, who was contesting Kaduna central Senatorial ticket.

Nabena told journalists that the party only cleared Shehu Sani for the Kaduna Central ticket, and that other candidates stand disqualified.

In a statement, Uba Sani said: “These are moments that have tested our resolve and fidelity to democratic values.

The unlawful exclusion of myself and other aspirants from the list of those cleared to participate in the senatorial primaries for Kaduna Central shocked and disappointed us.

Together with our party members, we protested the unlawful attempt to foist one candidate on our Senatorial District without a democratic contest.

“Today, our party has upheld the tenets of inclusion and has insisted on democratic primaries as the mode of selecting its candidates for 2019 general elections. We welcome this fresh embrace of democratic tenets.”

Sources informed The Guardian that before the fresh primaries yesterday, Uba Sani allegedly withdrew the case he filed against the party and its Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole at the Kaduna High Court, last Friday.

In a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Abdulsamad Chima Amadi, Senator Sani said: “We wish to inform the general public that Shehu Sani is not part of, and is not participating in a purported Kaduna Central APC senatorial primaries.

“The office of Senator Shehu Sani has not, and will not send anybody as its representative or agent to that illegality some desperate people are organising. This is because APC national leadership has not scheduled any senatorial primaries in Kaduna Central today.

“Consequently, anybody that goes there does so at his or her own freewill and does not in any way represent the interest of Senator Shehu Sani.”