Odinkalu made his comments while responding to concerns raised by lawyer and social media commentator, Ekene Aninze, who argued that the APC’s handling of its internal primaries may lead to avoidable litigation if challenged by dissatisfied aspirants.…....
The human rights advocate particularly raised eyebrows over reports suggesting that judges who allegedly benefited from government-provided housing were involved in processes linked to the selection of candidates for the party’s elections.
Expressing concern over the implication of such a situation, Odinkalu questioned the propriety of the arrangement and its potential consequences for democratic integrity and public trust in electoral processes.
He wrote, “You mean a political party had just set up judges for whom it built houses to pick and choose who will get tickets to be candidates of the party in the next election? That sounds potentially like a honey pot,” he wrote.
Earlier, Ekene Aninze had criticized the APC’s approach to its senatorial primaries, arguing that the party may have undermined its own credibility by adopting procedures that could be open to legal challenges.
According to Aninze, the controversy reportedly began when nomination forms were sold to aspirants who were later disqualified from participating in the primaries, raising questions about fairness and due process.
He further alleged that the party also withheld the results of senatorial primaries conducted across the country after issuing directives that electoral committees should not publicly announce outcomes until they had been reviewed at the party’s national headquarters in Abuja.
The lawyer warned that such practices could open the door to litigation, especially if aggrieved candidates decide to challenge whether the party complied with its constitution, internal guidelines, and provisions of the Electoral Act.
He added that future legal disputes may not necessarily focus on the identity of declared winners, but rather on whether the entire nomination and screening process adhered to established rules and democratic standards.
