The National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressive Congress, (APC), Felix Morka has disowned a statement circulating online that purportedly contains a consensus list of candidates for the Delta State House of Assembly, insisting that he neither issued nor authorised the document.
This comes after a statement which contained a purported consensus list of candidates for the Delta State House of Assembly circulated online, prompting the national publicity secretary of the APC, Morka, to dismiss it as fake and deny issuing or authorising it.
He said this while speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday.
“The statement that you read—part of it you read—was not a statement issued by me. I didn’t issue this statement. This is not in the format of my statements, clearly not signed by me. So I have no idea where this document came from. It’s obviously a fake document in circulation. That’s not my signature. And it says Felix Morka, FNIPR. I have no such—I have no such appellation or title or, honor or whatever it is. This is absolute nonsense. It’s nothing close to my signature because, from the head to toe of this document, it’s not mine. So there’s no part of it that you can really attribute to me. That’s not my document. I don’t issue documents in this format. And it says official statement. I don’t title my statements like that. And it says from the national publicity secretary. I have no such letterhead,” he stressed.
Explaining the APC’s primary election process, Morka said only the National Working Committee has the authority to approve and declare official results after reviewing reports submitted by field committees, stressing that no committee can announce outcomes independently, as final validation must come from the party’s central leadership.
“There’s only one entity that is authorized to manage our primaries on behalf of the party. And that is the National Working Committee (NWC). It is then the duty of the NWC to sit, you know, in committee and review all of those reports and then officially approve them, and adopt them as the outcome of the primaries,” he explained.
He also said Nigerians can trust the results, as the NWC will review and approve all reports before finalising the party’s official outcome.
“The NWC will sit, review the reports, and, you know, approve the reports as, you know, in exercise of its authority as I said, as the, you know, manager of the party’s primary elections.”
Defending the APC primaries, Morka said they complied with party rules and the Electoral Act, stressing that disputes are normal and do not invalidate the process.
“The primaries across the board have been in substantial compliance with the constitution of our party, with the Electoral Act, and with all other laws that are relevant to the conduct of our primaries. People contest hoping to win. When they don’t win, they have reasons to be disappointed or to be upset or to be, you know, somewhat jaded. But that’s, again, not anything that’s unusual, whether it’s within the APC or other parties or any contest for that matter,” he said.
Responding to questions on alleged automatic tickets and internal party inconsistencies, Morka said no governor received automatic nomination, insisting that all APC candidates emerged through either competitive primaries or consensus arrangements.
“First, about automatic tickets. You’re the one telling me. I’m not aware of any governor who got automatic tickets. All our governors either have emerged through a competitive process or through a consensus model, depending on where they are. We didn’t have any ticket that was given on a platter. Every governor who won these primaries competed at primaries,” he insisted.
On the presidential primary, Morka explained that the APC adopted a direct primary system because an aspirant purchased nomination forms and chose to contest the presidency.
“About the presidential primary. Yes, we did elect to do the direct primary model because we had a citizen who purchased our form, expressed interest to compete for the office of President. We decided that we put that in play for citizens and party members across the country, across all of the wards tomorrow, to go out and cast their vote for either Mr. President or for the gentleman who is an aspirant for the office of President. So tomorrow, we will witness that primary, and hopefully at the end of the day, have an outcome that the people have dictated,” he concluded.
Favour Odima
