Taraba Lawmakers Jittery as APC Shuts Door on Automatic Tickets

 

Anxiety is spreading among political office holders in Taraba State, particularly members of the State House of Assembly who recently defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), over their chances of securing the party's ticket ahead of the next general elections.

 

Multiple lawmakers who followed Governor Agbu Kefas into the ruling party are said to be worried that they may not survive the APC primary elections due to entrenched party structures and hostile internal dynamics in their constituencies.

 

Some of the defectors, speaking privately, admitted that their new status as APC members places them at a disadvantage against long-standing party loyalists who control grassroots structures and party machinery.

 

"The fact is we are new in the APC, and the majority of APC members are people we contested against in the past. How do we now face them in a primary election where they dominate the party structure?" one lawmaker said.

 

Others expressed concern that powerful local party leaders and political power brokers could work against them during the primaries, especially in areas where APC has long been dominant.

 

"We followed Governor Kefas to join the APC, and our interests must be protected. We should not be sacrificed or allowed to suffer in the APC," another legislator said, questioning how defectors would compete fairly in primaries controlled by old party stakeholders.

 

The fears appear to have been heightened by a national position of the APC leadership, which has ruled out the granting of automatic tickets to recent defectors.

 

According to a report by The Punch, a member of the APC National Working Committee (NWC), who spoke on condition of anonymity, clarified that defection into the party does not come with any guarantee of automatic nomination.

 

"The APC is a democratic party. Defectors must contest and earn their tickets like every other member," the official reportedly said.

 

This position was reinforced by the APC Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim, who told The Punch that the ruling party would allow all members to fully exercise their rights through its internal democratic process.

 

"There will be no automatic tickets for anyone. All aspirants must go through the party's primaries," Ibrahim stated.

 

While defectors have publicly cited alignment with the federal government and shared political ideology as reasons for joining the APC, critics argue that the real motivation is the desire to secure re-election under the ruling party's platform.

 

With the APC leadership insisting on open and competitive primaries, uncertainty continues to loom over the political future of Taraba lawmakers who recently crossed over, as the countdown to party primaries gathers pace.