By Chidi Nkwopara

OWERRI—GOVERNOR Rochas Okorocha’s desire to conduct mock primaries for loyalists of All Progressives Congress, APC, wishing to stand for any elective office, has started generating a lot of heat within the party.

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Respondents on the issue told Vanguard yesterday  that the planned exercise would be null and void and of no effect, if the governor goes ahead to conduct the mock primaries.

A party official from one of the 27 local council areas of the state, who spoke on strict condition of anonymity yesterday, said that “mock primary is alien to APC Constitution.

“This man (Okorocha) does a lot of weird things with impunity. How can he start talking about mock primaries, when we don’t have such a thing in the party constitution? This is worrisome”, the officer said.

According to the man, there was a strong belief that the governor wants to use it to hoist his preferred candidates.

“Governor Okorocha has said in different fora that the people will choose candidates for the various public offices, but some of us know that the planned mock primaries is a subtle way of hoisting his preferred candidates for the various public offices”, the man said.

Another APC stalwart, Agunwa Emeka Nzeribe, also condemned the planned mock primaries.

“In the Nigerian Electoral Act, passed by the National Assembly, there is no section of it that supports the purported mock primaries, which Governor Okorocha wants to embark on”, Nzeribe said.