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The National Executive Council, NEC meeting of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC holding today is set to make a u-turn on its earlier decision which extended the tenure of the John Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee Members of the party for one year.
The Council NEC had fixed Monday to take final decision on the tenure extension for the party’s executives’ after it constituted a 10-member technical committee headed by Gov. Simon Dalung of Plateau to advise its leadership on how to move forward on the matter.
This followed President Muhammadu Buhari´s recent opposition to NEC’s approval of tenure extension for the NWC and all executive committees of the party at all levels across the country, a decision he said was unconstitutional.
Abdullahi Ganduje, Governor of Kano State, speaking to some selected newsmen in Abuja disclosed that the earlier decision of APC NEC which favoured tenure extension will be reversed.
Governor Ganduje also revealed that today’s NEC meeting is expected to decide on date and time table for Congresses and convention of the party which will produce party officials at all levels.
He said few APC governors who were campaigning for what he described as “illegal” tenure elongation have been convinced to discard such moves.
“Let me tell you the issues involved, those who are advocating for tenure elongation, they are advocating on the premise that when we hold congresses and convention according to their own perception, there will be a lot of problems and that problem will linger into election period. Well that is a perception, it could be that way and it could be that some people wanted to retain power.
“The constitution of our party has made a provision for four years and at the end of it we have to hold congresses and convention. The constitution of Nigeria has also provided for that, so we have no reason whatsoever.
”So for those who thought they would be able to continue, we said no and so I think Mr. President finally hit the nail on the head, by saying that he is not in favour of any tenure elongation.
“Tenure elongation is undemocratic, it may lead us to litigation which will not be good for the party and we are happy that we have convinced the few governors that were for the elongation.
“I think that is the situation and I am happy to say that the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum issued a statement, the chairman of the APC governors Forum also issued a statement and the national chairman of the party Chief John Oyegun made a statement as well to say that all is well,” the Kano Governor maintained.
Meanwhile, the APC described as false, allegations by Reno Omokri, erstwhile Special Assistant to Former President Goodluck Jonathan on New Media which was contained in April 5, 2018 report published on the website of Vanguard Newspapers, titled: ‘APC secretly reaching out to me for friendship’.
Edegbe Odemwingie, Assistant Director of Publicity, APC National Secretariat in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja said the report shows that, Omokri’s allegation is based on interactions he had on twitter with one Philip Obin who manages a twitter handle, “@APCNigeria”.
Odemwingie stated that the Party had on several occasions distanced itself from the now notorious twitter handle, “@APCNigeria” following unauthorized tweets and subsequent false reports credited to the Party on the outcome of the Benue South Senatorial rerun election and an assessment poll on President Muhammadu Buhari Administration among others. He said despite APC rebuttals, Obin has continued to impersonate the Party through the twitter handle, “@APCNigeria”. ”For the avoidance of doubts, we wish to state that Philip Obin was one of the numerous youth volunteers for our party during the 2015 elections. He administered the Twitter handle at the time. But despite numerous appeals to him by various well meaning party representatives, to hand over the handle, Obin has refused and in defiance continues to use it to misrepresent the Party. ”In essence, therefore, Obin’s interactions with Omokri are in his personal capacity and do not involve the Party in any way. Given this latest incident, the Party is now left with no option than to take other lawful actions to restrain Obin from further embarrassing the Party. The general public is yet again reminded that the Twitter handle @APCNigeria is not a Twitter handle of the All Progressives Congress,” Odemwingie stated.
JAMES KWEN, ABUJA
