Ahead of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), primary election scheduled for June 21, party chairman Alhaji Mukthar Abubakar has disclosed that there will be no automatic ticket.
According to Abubakar, those who defected recently to the party, including the incumbent chairman of AMAC, Hon Christopher Maikalangu, will not enjoy automatic tickets, adding that all members interested in the chairmanship position are eligible to contest.
Speculation has been that the party will give the automatic ticket to the incumbent AMAC chairman as compensation for his defection.
Maikalangu defected from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC last month, citing division in the party.
Speaking at the weekend while unveiling Hon Yunusa Dantani Sarki by YDS Foundation at Karimo, Abuja, the vice chairman of AMAC, APC, Saidu Yaro Karshi, who represented the chairman, Hon Murthar Abubakar, made the disclosure.
Karshi dismissed rumours about ceding the ticket to Maikalangu and noted that every aspirant would go to the field and seek votes from the electorate.
He said, “Let me use this opportunity to clear the air on the rumour of automatic tickets making the rounds. I want to state clearly that there is no automatic ticket for anybody for the AMAC 2026 election; every aspirant will go through the primary election, so let me say here, there is nothing like an automatic ticket. ”
Unfolding his agenda, Hon Yunusa Dantani Sarki noted that he was in the race to transform the area council, which, according to him, suffered retardation in previous administrations.
Speaking on the defection of the current chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council, Maikalangu, from the PDP to the APC, Sarki dismissed fears of an automatic ticket, saying that he was confident of winning the party’s ticket.
“President Goodluck Jonathan was the incumbent president, and he was defeated by Muhammad Buhari in 2015. The people will decide, Maikalangu must go,” he declared.
Meanwhile, Chief Sunday Okoh, chairman of the Yunusa Dantani Sarki Foundation, said that the group will mobilise its resources and voters for the victory of their preferred candidate, Hon Sarki. He added that he has the proper credentials to govern the area council.