Rivers Assembly Aspirant Accuses APC Screening Committee Of Alleged Discrimination

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:04]Thank you so much and welcome back to the program. Let's get deep into APC matters. Former deputy Senate President Senator Aier Omar Aig has resigned his membership of the APC with immediate effect citing recent developments within the ruling party and the need to pursue the interests of his constituents outside the platform. Omar Gigi conveyed his decision in a resignation letter dated to 22nd of May 2026 addressing to the chairman of APC war 2 in hui north local government area of Delta state that's the case of a Omar gig but in parts of different parts of Nigeria like Baoi and parts of Goombbe riverstead there are those who are agrieved about how the primaries of the party was conducted tonight. Let's get into the matter and hear from party members and those who are agrieved. I'm being joined tonight by a member of the party who is live for us in Cano, Mr. Alwan Hassan. Thanks so much indeed for joining us tonight.

[00:01:11]>> Thank you for having me. I appreciate >> yeah to you and uh Dr. Legosi yam yama bahana is a river's APC house of assembly aspirant and he is the chair of the association of those who think that they have been rigged out in the process of the river's APC primary. Thank you so much Eli for joining us tonight.

[00:01:33]>> Thank you for having >> appreciate Mr. Alan Hassan tell us what exactly went on in Baoi and another part of the country. It does look like a lot of people are angry. What went on? What really happened?

[00:01:46]So, so uh Sh um um not every part had uh uh the issues Boi has and uh for Boi I think the whole thing is uh turned around. If you look at other states and you look at the presidential primaries, it was conducted well and her party members went out to vote for the president. But in the case of Bulchi uh um the so-called anointed candidate announced on Friday Friday evening that uh uh he was the president uh uh has chosen then while orders have been drawn he said the next morning we saw a group of um clowns calling out figures that there were primaries and they were at the committee and uh calling out figures of people that have lost and those that have won.

[00:02:41]Then on your interview with the uh party national chairman of the APC, he he confirmed that nobody was given the the right to announce any result in states.

[00:02:54]That is the NWC that are supposed to announce announce results for BI. There was no primaries. Nobody was counted. uh it was almost a consensus and uh they they they went and uh did what they wanted to do. party actually uh uh messed up everything and later they the they the they the I think they told the president asked him to just remove his hands from boi state which it is it should he shouldn't have been you know because alipati will not be a leader of APC in boi m cannot win the elections for in the APC in boi he lost when bhari raised his hands in 2019 if people of BI state can defy Bhari and and and and kick out Emmy. I don't think anybody else can raise his hands in BIA and makes him win elections. So that is the trouble we have in both as as at now two senators from the APC have left the APC to the PRP and if you ask sh you know people in in BI state call people randomly and ask them can MA win uh uh uh elections in BI state they will tell you he is not electable in BI state boi would never vote for MA again I really don't know what happens but the president has the leaders in Boi in his fingertip he has the special adviser political malamudaru to clear things from and I don't think anybody telling the president to remove his hands from boi should uh convince the president from removing his hands because it will actually affect his uh uh uh elections in boi state is a state that usually will give us 1 million 1.5 million votes in 2015 we had more than a million votes and even the presidential primaries they said they did it was a lie nobody lined up to do anything they didn't count anything if they are telling us that they did primaries in in in governatorial primaries. I want we want to see pictures and videos you making allegations mentioning names of persons like Ali party. I mean were you there you were making that you say he was with the president he said I mean is is that fair to to mention the names without you were you in the in the room when that was happening? Is that can you substantiate when you said that the president told Ali party to remove his hand and all what not?

[00:05:20]>> No no no it was Alip party that told the president it was Alip party that told the president that advised the president to remove his >> Were you there? Were you there? Can you verify?

[00:05:28]>> I wasn't there but I had a foran news. I had a forign information that he was the one that went to Lagos and uh took his knee pad from from from Abuja, knelt down in front of the president and was crying and was telling the president that he was going to be if somebody was chosen. So, uh the best thing to do is to remove your hands from Boi. And the president said, "Okay, no problem. If you're going to do it right, do it right. Go ahead." They came out and they announced a candidate, a so-called candidate that the president did not endorse. What I'm trying to clear Sean is the president did not endorse Emmy because by saying the president endorsed Emmy, we're causing more trouble for our elections, presidential elections in BI.

[00:06:12]>> So you are in favor of Tuga. But Tuga make no no I I am in favor of direct primaries.

[00:06:25]None of the aspirants none of the aspirants have signed any agreement or anything to have withdrawn for me. So in that case if you don't have the aspirants in agreement through a direct primaries I am I am in support of a direct primaries in BI state let's have a transparent free and fair direct primaries in BI state if not we've lost BI there is nothing MA can do. In fact, the few times he went out after Friday, he was stoned. People were booed him.

[00:06:56]People booed him.

[00:06:57]>> Is there a way your party can fix this?

[00:06:59]Because it's not only people are are angry in Rivers. People are angry in Gome. Patami as you know has left your party. He's gotten the ticket of the PDP. In sitting house of rest member in Lagos state are angry. In Kogi state, the same thing. A lot of the states across the federation, people are upset about the process. They think things are unfair.

[00:07:21]>> So in states that we have government, uh why I'm concerned about BHI is because it's the only state in northern Nigeria that is not APC. In states that we have a government, in states we have governors, sitting governors, there will be negotiations. There will be sorry and take this and take that. See, politics is about give and take. If we have a government, if I had a government in Bji state, I wouldn't have said anything is wrong because of course a sitting governor can sort things out for us. So butchi does not have a leader. Pate is not supposed to be the leader of Bi APC.

[00:07:54]In the last election 2023, he contested for governatorial election. In the primaries, he got one vote. How can such a person that got one vote in 2023, two years later, you're giving him leadership of a whole state.

[00:08:08]It is not done that way.

[00:08:09]>> Give me a moment. Give me a moment. Let me come to uh Lewisi Yamama who is a river APC out of assembly aspirant and you are chairing a league of unhappy aspirants in the party. What really happened? Were you also rigged out?

[00:08:27]>> Well, thank you very much Shenu and I want to say before I respond to you that everything I'll be telling you in this studio today shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

[00:08:37]My name is Legos. Like you rightly said, I contested in this election and I must tell you that the APC was bu on the principle of internal democracy but what we saw in River State was short of that.

[00:08:54]For instance, we were 98 assembly aspirants and out of that 98 just 33 persons were cleared. River State House has 32 House of Assembly seats. It goes to shows that the screening committee effectively on the day of the screening already conducted the primaries election for the party and it also goes to tell you that there are people that do not want Mr. President to win election in River State. And I will butress that a little further for some of us. Mind you, I'm also the spokesman for the Niger Delta Ethnic National Leaders Forum. I'm a youth leader. I'm the president general of Agoni youth. I'm a popular candidate from the grassroots together with people like Chio Kuan the former chairman of people like Sukar good boy oko jumbo I mean serving assembly members being screened out just because they do not belong to one political camp or the other it goes to shows that the party screening committee is doing a huge disservice to not just >> who are those that have now filled those position They left like I said one person per constituency was cleared so there was no primaries and these persons that were cleared to you know not to contest because like I said there was no contest we are people you know that have link to certain persons >> who are the certain persons >> well I am not here to drop names but I want to tell you that >> but you are not also here to make unfounded claims so who are the certain >> I that's why that is why I I I even made you the judge over me that I will say the truth and the whole truth Mhm.

[00:10:45]>> Right.

[00:10:46]>> Nigerian state to know who are the persons who are now controlling your party in River State.

[00:10:51]>> Well, >> are they within the APC?

[00:10:53]>> Well, I I would if you allow me, we'll come to that. So, what I want to say is only for the progress of the party because we have all met about 65 of us that we are not clear. They didn't even tell us they didn't clear us because no reason was put forward. We have met and they have appointed me to be the chairman of all the uh candidates I mean aspirants because they never allowed us to be candidates that we are denying you know free context and we are together in one accord.

[00:11:27]>> What are you planning to do?

[00:11:28]>> Our plan is simple. We are calling on Mr. President to do justice to this cause. People that have done this do not mean well for the party and the president and this nation. So they sat the existing members of your party. Is that what has happened?

[00:11:43]>> That is what happened. What happened?

[00:11:45]>> PDP members were brought in and they chase you the owners of the house outside of the house. Is that the case?

[00:11:51]>> Well, they call it rainbow coalition, right? I have heard some gimmicks like that from the studio. But all of that is we do not have all the time. It's what is going on. But the truth is that Mr. President must call the party leadership to order immediately otherwise things are going bad. I can tell you that those of us in river states we are agrieved.

[00:12:19]>> There's no we don't need to.

[00:12:20]>> Do they even care about do they know that they are agreed? What would you do if agrieved >> and River State it does look like they are telling you to go to hell?

[00:12:28]>> No, we can't we can't go to hell.

[00:12:30]>> No, I'm saying I mean not literally but in in that sense do they really care?

[00:12:34]It's it it's it's it has been the pattern but this time around there's a paradigm shift >> elections votes we can't >> and I'm telling you that so far so good >> those that have been clear to contest this election do not have the capacity and the ears and the buy in of the people of river state >> and their election reflects what Mr. presidents we get in River State.

[00:12:59]>> Is there is there a competition that could uh make APC lose in River State?

[00:13:04]>> The competition that would make APC lose in River State is this issues that is being treated with levity.

[00:13:13]>> All right.

[00:13:14]>> If you have if you have wanted to tell the president tonight about this matter, what would you say to him?

[00:13:18]>> What I would tell Mr. President is simple. River State is a multithnic state.

[00:13:24]River states has had governors so far. One ethnic nationality in the state, the query ethnic nationality has produced governor for 16 years plusa and >> I am from the ethnic nationality.

[00:13:46]>> We have not produced governor.

[00:13:48]>> The calabaris have not prod. There are many other ethnicities and so there is a need >> for power to be rotated equitably.

[00:13:58]>> All right.

[00:13:58]>> For the purposes of peace and tranquility.

[00:14:00]>> All right. Mr. Alwan, just 30 seconds.

[00:14:03]If you are to uh ask for a way to to go forward in this matter, what would that be? Just in 20 seconds.

[00:14:10]>> So So the advice I'll give you, Mr. president is uh to uh call on the leaders uh uh in Doi, speak to them uh ask them questions about uh who is the best candidate and advise the party to conduct a free, fair and credible primaries, direct primaries. Let them let everybody go and show his uh uh clarity and then we will uh get a good candidate. But MA is not electable in Bi state.

[00:14:36]>> Thank you so much. and make us lose our elections presidential election in in Bi state.

[00:14:42]>> Thanks so much gentlemen for your time tonight. I appreciate. But that's our show for today everyone man. Thanks for watching. I'm Kimal. God bless Nigeria.