 is still plus politics. Now the recently concluded Akiti state primaries of both the People's Democratic Party and the All Progressive Congress were rife with infighting and calls for cancellations. Now in the case of the APC, the Governor, May Mela Boni led Ketika Committee of the party was urged to annul the party's primary over alleged irregularities. The primary had held desperate protest of seven of the eight aspirants jostling for the APC governorship ticket. Those of them who were annoyed called for the suspension of the exercise over the allegation that the local government committee members to serve as electoral members were campaigners and supporters of a particular aspirant. Now the exercise was eventually won by former Secretary to Akiti State Government Biodun Uyebanji. What's running us to discuss issues and what happened behind the scenes is Bimboh Daramalahi is a former member representing Akiti North Federal Constituency One in the House of Representatives. Mr. Daramalahi, thank you so much for joining us. Apologies for the connection issues. Well, thank you very much. It's nice to be back here again. Technology has a mind of its own sometimes. Interesting. So after the primaries, just as I said, there were a lot of few people complaining about the regularities admired the primaries, including your principal. A lot of people said that, you know, they needed the process to be done all over again. But then the winners said, look, we don't know what you're talking about. This was a free, fair, incredible primaries. And the winners imagined this is who the party is going to stand by. But tell us exactly what happened, what you think happened. What happened before, during or after, which of them do you want to know now? Because I'm asking this question because your principal at some point, in fact, the person who you have been campaigning for was one of the people who was saying that they need to get some form of redress for what happened on the day of the primaries. Oh, yeah. Thank you very much for tracking this story up. The aspirant that I bought, you know, alongside five orders, no, alongside six orders, decided to protest and to express their dissatisfaction with the process that led to the emergence of my friend and brother, Giorgio Evangie. And of course, I had reasons to speak about this at another station, about echoing the feelings of not only the aspirants by themselves, but also the disaffection of party people who ordinary will have also voted for these people. You would recall that the results of the election as announced showed that PO2, the SSG, had votes in excess of about 100,000, which is interesting. And then my principal at this instance, you know, had, or was given 700 votes, 700 votes, while Giorgio was given 767 votes. Now, it stands to reason that a man who had the members of representatives before and had served well for four years only managed to score 765 votes. And then Giorgio probably scored a little bit above that, not even up to 1,000. And now for the guy who used to be members of representatives for four years and did well, you know, somebody who had run for governor before in 2018, you know. Also, now a serving senator, we had doubled up in trying to do a lot for the people. So he had handed the trust of the people and handing the trust of the people by these results would mean that all of the things he's done and all of his presence in political space, political space could only afford the 765 votes. You know, it's funny, but it's okay. So going on from there, what people have done is that a lot of things are going on, the cases in court are being challenged by one of them, one of the aspirants in the person of place, Adi, and then a number of other people had also felt that, well, even if all of them decides to go to court, that's even if the case will still have to be consolidated and merged into one place and then be treated as that. But, and I think he used to have coming up, people started using the fact that some of them had preferences to want to leave the party. So my principal in this circumstance decided to issue a statement where he clarified that there was no need to go to court anymore and also that he wasn't leaving the party. And I thought that that was very thoughtful because even if he proceeds to the court, even if, you know, whatever the EU could have been, will still have to be resolved right within the fold of the APC. So jumping outside of the fray to amplify disinterest in the process cannot be best served outside of the party. But I'm curious, cheating his sword is one thing, which is great, but does it one way or the other say or bring a form of certainty that these issues will be addressed or is it just going to be swept under the carpet because who has been anointed or whoever has, you know, won that primary is going to be the one that finally becomes governor or decides, or that's the person the party is going to decide that will run against whoever else, any other political party that comes because from how you sound, you don't sound as if you are certain that any changes would happen. I mean, I'm asking this because the APC has also been facing its fair share of internal problems all across the country. And we keep hearing about these reconciliation moves, but underneath, there's still warring factions, there's still tension within the party and unsatisfied party members. So really, is this just your principle, um, resigning to fate, knowing that really nothing is going to come out of it? Or is there anything else to it? Well, this is not about resignation to fate. A number of things are beginning to unfold and, um, like I said, I need to re-echo this and make it very sharp. Um, number one, um, one of the aspirants are taking this case to court. So it's going to be duplicitous. No, I mean, duplicity, right? I'm not duplicitous. Duplicity, if, if only he decides to go to court. That's number one. Number two, it's also starts to reason that whatever injustice has been perceived or perceived to have been done by the process can only be best resolved within the party, not when fifth column minister are beginning to push a story, a narrative that is also amplifying the position of leaving the party. So you needed to put the statements out that one is not leaving the party and two, um, there's no reason to challenge, to go to court to, to, to challenge the case again. But let me say to you that the federal, the national conversion of the party is coming up in two, three, in two and a half weeks. And, um, people are patiently looking forward to that conversion and that conversion obviously also would be, um, a good point where after substantive, substantive, um, um, executives of the party are being either by consensus or by election, um, getting into those positions, filling those positions that are being occupied by the chaotic outcome. It's now one of the things that I believe would be on the front burner is on the front burner and the front burner issue for the incoming, um, incoming administration will also be some of the issues that put that at challenge and tested the integrity of the party. So I believe that there are also internal mechanisms that would also be deployed in the days ahead in quick turnaround time to address some of the things that people have raised, particularly with regards to election. Finally, because I've been told that we're almost out of time. Just quickly, just answer this question. Um, the issue of direct primaries has also been, you know, in the news as per APC. Now I'm asking because, um, the human Nigerian human rights community has described the primaries in AKT state as a demonstration that direct primaries remains the best option for APC's internal democracy, looking at all the things that are played out. They've also somewhat suggested that whatever irregularities that, you know, the members of the party or the contestants felt, you know, had marred this, the situation, they think that this was preplanned and this was what in quotes, the masters wanted. I'd like to get your two cents on it before we wrap up. Well, I don't know the community that you said that actually said that. The Nigerian human rights community, in other words, they're a group of human rights writers and observers. I'm not too sure. I'm not too sure. There's some of these guys. So I don't really get what they're talking about. It's an opinion. You tell us what you think. Well, um, by, by, by generics, by generics, I believe very strongly direct primaries serves the purpose of the party, not only APC, but all political parties. And what direct primaries means is that every card-carrying member of the party can express an opinion via his ballot. Now, what the AKT election has showed us is that it is not a one cure-hold drug. It's not a one hand for one glove fits all. One thing that we have observed from this election going forward is the fact that in future, there are so many pitfalls, so many landmines, along in the processes leading up to the expression of the will of the common man who is the member of the party. So those things I reckon will be who demand attention, particularly by people who are contesting elections in the future. I'm not too sure that anybody will go this route again in future without paying particular attention to the things that have marked the integrity of the process, as we have seen in the last election. Well, I want to say thank you. Bimbodara Mola is former member representing AKT North Federal constituency one in the House of Representatives. Thank you so much for speaking with us. We appreciate it. Well, that's all for tonight on Plus Politics, but we leave you before we go with something that Nigerians are saying about political parties that they prefer, and this is On Street Views. I am Mary Anna Cohn. I'll see you tomorrow. Have a good evening and happy Valentine's Day. Some other parties should take over because PDP has been ruling for a very long time, APC has also been ruling for a very long time, and let me just say they are all best of the same feather, so they should give opportunity to other parties to rule. It's not about political parties. It's why do we get a good leader? That's our problem, so we don't care about other PDP or APC. If you look at the attitude of our politicians, you could see somebody from APC would come to PDP because of his own interest. You would see somebody from APC would come to PDP because of his own interest. So our problem is not about the political parties, it's about leadership. Anywhere good leader comes, it is welcomed. Please APC, leave us alone. Please, I'm begging you people, leave us alone. Please, not by force. They are the same people now from this party to this party. Let just the youth or young somebody take over. Let all these old men leave us alone. Look at how we are stressing ourselves, suffering on this hot sun every day by day. They should leave us alone. Leave us alone. I have my PVC already shared. I know what to do with it. I don't think the party matters. What matters is the person in particular? I don't care about the party. I care about the person in itself. Today PDP, tomorrow APC, me and all like this guy. We don't have to suffer from Nigeria. So we need another people to make up. This one will tell you this one. This one will tell you that when they are campaigning, they will promise us also things. They are going to bring good school, food, good route, all this one. Nothing is working in this country. I think we should try another political party. Maybe we will see a difference. These two parties, they are the same group of people. It's recycling, you understand? If they keep coming up, if you do them bad in this party, they will come to the other party. It's the same person. So we need fresh people entirely so that we'll be able to get it, see whether we can get it right.