Noah Ebije, Kaduna

One of the aspirants that contested for the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s Senate ticket for the Kaduna Central Senatorial zone, Gen. Sani Saleh (rtd), has explained why he accepted the outcome of the primary, saying it was in submission to a democratic process.

Saleh had contested the ticket with four others but lost to Governor Nasir el-Rufai’s Adviser on Political Matters, Uba Sani, who polled the highest number of votes at the election.

But one of the aspirants, Sen. Shehu Sani, boycotted the election, saying it was an illegal exercise as the party had already taken a decision on the matter, having declared him as the sole candidate for the Senatorial race.

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The retired army general, at an event  to hand over results of the primary to all the successful candidate, said that as far as he was concerned, the issue of automatic ticket is illegitimate in a democracy since it is not anywhere in the Nigeria Constitution and that of the APC.

Saleh said while he stood with Sen. Sani on the issue of direct primaries, he had to reconsider his stance when the APC leadership decided on indirect primaries, adding that his loyalty is to the national leadership of the party.

“As loyal party members, we cannot go against the collective decision  of the leadership and stakeholders,” Saleh said.

Earlier, Chairman of the electoral committee in the state, Mathew Idouriyekemwen, described the primary election in Kaduna as one of the freest and fairest held in the country.