The All Progressives Congress (APC), Primary Election Committee Chairman, Major General A.T Jubrin yesterday assured that measures have been put in place to conduct free, credible and peaceful primaries in Bayelsa state.
Jubrin disclosed this in Yenagoa while speaking to news men and his committee members ahead of the APC primaries in the state.
He said, to achieve hitch-free primaries, the committee had visited all the security architectures to inform them of the need to ensure adequate security during the primaries.
He further disclosed that six aspirants were going to slug it out in the election adding that the party was going to use ‘Option A’ method where all the delegates in the 105 wards will queue behind their preferred aspirants.
He also assured that none of the aspirants will be given any preferential treatment and maintained that the committee will ensure that there is neutrality for all the aspirants.
“The primaries will be conducted in the 105 wards of Bayelsa state using ‘Option A’ method whereby voters will queue up behind their aspirants in the presence of INEC and security officials, agents of the aspirants and other officials. All the registered members of the party are going to take part in the primaries.
“They have to present their slip for registration as a party member and their PVCs are an advantage for quick accreditation. You have to present one of them and your name must be on the register.
“In some of the wards, they are up to one hundred and in some, they are less. We don’t know the total number but they are many.
“It is difficult to know the total number but bear in mind that we have a register for all those that will participate. We will accredit everybody and we have a register of all those that will participate.
“We have mapped out a lot of measures to achieve hitch-free primaries. First of all, we have assured the compilation of voter registers based on party register for every ward in the eight local governments and nobody will be allowed to join the queue until you are accredited and until you prove that you are a member of the party by showing your registration slip and your name is on the register.
“All these we believe will serve as a support for us to have a credible, peaceful and rancour-free election. We have a duty as members of the committee and as guidelines given to us by our party to determine those who will be returning officers from the wards and the local governments but the aspirants have the right to have representation from each of the places and we have got them and we have issued them letters in all the 105 wards and the eight local governments in the state”