National Convention: APC adopts report on zoning formula

…As Bello led-committe calls for Party’s NEC meeting next week

…I remain National Secretary until Buhari says otherwise — Akpanudoedehe

…PDP warns political aspirants from joining ruling party

Abimbola Abatta, Uthman Salami and Joel Oladele

The All Progressives Congress (APC), on Tuesday, adopted the report on zoning formula ahead of the party’s national convention slated for March 26th.

Acting Chairman of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) and Governor of Niger State, Abubakar Bello, disclosed this shortly after a meeting with CECPC members at the Party’s National Secretariat.

According to Bello, the party’s leadership adopted the report it received from the Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazak-led Zoning Committee.

This is even as he said the report will soon be made public.

He also hinted that the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting would be held next week in preparation for the National Convention.

“The report of the zoning formula has been submitted and adopted and it will be released any moment from now. I mean the zoning formula.

“Hopefully, by next week, the NEC meeting will hold. It is a continuation of yesterday’s (Monday) meeting. And just so you know, so you won’t be asking me the same thing tomorrow, we are going to be meeting every day until the convention so that we can put things together.

“Basically, today (Tuesday), we looked at the convention sub-committee and we collected some of the reports from the committee hoping that tomorrow we will decide on the next step to take,” he said.

When asked whether the former CECPC National Secretary, Dr John Akpanudoedehe, is still part of the new leadership of the party, Bello said, “ask him.”

Only Buhari can make me resign —Akpanudoedehe

Amid the crisis rocking the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), the embattled national secretary of the party, Senator James Akpanudoedehe has said he remains the party secretary until there is a directive from president Mohammadu Buhari for him to resign.

24 hours after the chairman of the party, Mai Mala Buni allegedly resigned, it was reported on some news platforms that Akpanudoedehe also submitted his resignation letter to the Caretaker Committee Acting Chairman, Governor Abubakar Sani Bello during a routine meeting of the committee at the party Secretariat in Abuja.

The scribe, however, described the news as fake and nothing to be taken serious, saying he has not tendered any resignation letter to anyone

He said, “I have read on social media that I have resigned as Secretary of the APC. I want to state that it is not true that I didn’t resign. If I had resigned, you would have seen my letter of resignation written by me. Someone cannot just say somebody is dead when he is alive.

“I am not bigger than the party or bigger than the president who is the leader of the country. I am waiting for the national chairman to come back.”

Akpanudoedehe used the opportunity to highlight some of the achievements of Mai Mala Buni’s administration and added that no one can play down on such achievements, according to him, what is going on is just a mere power play in the party

“We have done so much for this party. When we inherited this party, if you can recall, it was at its lowest ebb. We built the party and recovered a lot of grounds. We were able to register 41 million members and we bought this secretariat of the party.

“We have been able to recover what we lost and brought in a lot of governors. All the states we lost, we brought them back.

“We have been able to go round this country and the Constitution amendment that was a difficult thing to do, we have done it in less than one year.

“We have done reconciliation, ward, local governments and state congresses. And we are about to do the national convention. This is not the first time you are seeing power play.

“I am waiting for the Chairman. If we have a directive from the president that we should resign, we are not bigger than the president, we will do so, if we hear from him. Somebody cannot say go and announce he is resigning. Like MKO Abiola used to say, ‘you don’t save someone’s head in his absence.’ So, we have done so much.

“And you will agree with me that when we came in, this place was like a dead zone. The secretariat was moved to a private home. But we were committed to what we were doing

“I am stating here that the breaking news is not from me. I don’t know who announced it.

“Someone cannot say the president said. I have not received any letter from anywhere. The question is, ‘have you resigned?’ and the answer is NO. I am the national secretary of the party,” he reiterated.

Reacting to the question on his relationship with the acting caretaker chairman of the party, Governor Sani Bello, he said, “Our relationship is very cordial.”

PDP warns political aspirants from joining ruling party

Meanwhile, in reaction to the leadership shakeup in the APC, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, in Abuja, warned political aspirants vying for various offices under the APC to stop “wasting their resources, time and energy.”

The opposition party averred that the CECPC has no statutory authority under the law, saying that any State Congress or National Convention it conducts remains invalid.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, disclosed this in a statement he signed titled “Leadership crisis: APC is defunct, not eligible to contest elections — PDP.”

Ologunagba said,  “The PDP draws the attention of intending aspirants on the platform of the APC to the fact that the CECPC has no statutory authority under the law and that any State Congress or National Convention conducted by it to produce any party leadership at any level remains invalid and unrecognised by law.

“Consequently, any Governorship, State Assembly, National Assembly as well as Presidential Primary election conducted by any leadership produced by the illegal CECPC can only produce invalid candidates just like in the case of Zamfara and Rivers States in the 2019 general elections where the APC had invalid candidates due to defective primaries.

“Our Party, therefore, urges aspirants intending to contest in the 2023 general elections under the APC as well as their supporters to read the handwriting on the wall and not waste their resources, time and energy in the APC.

“With the absence of a National Working Committee, National Executive Committee, a Board of Trustees or legitimate structures in the States, the APC is plagued by confusion and fierce infighting by its various warlords with two National Chairmen, multiple factions in the states and a national secretariat now taken over by security agencies.

“Moreover, by virtue of Section 183 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) which bars a sitting governor from holding ‘any other executive office in any capacity whatsoever’ while serving as a State Governor, the APC’s CECPC whether headed by Governor Buni or Governor Bello remains constitutionally invalid.”