2023 Presidential aspirants must be medically certified, corrupt free – CNPP

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has distanced itself from a 2023 zoning list in circulation for the various national and party positions, saying that President Muhammadu Buhari, the APC Governors Forum and other stakeholders must be involved before such a decision could be arrived at.

Responding when he was engaged by journalists to confirm the authenticity of the list which surfaced yesterday across the various social media platforms, the National Secretary of the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), John Akpanudoedehe, said such critical decision could not be taken by the party caretaker committee alone.

He reiterated that at no time did the party at its 9th meeting held at its Secretariat discussed such matter, adding “People who are interested in running for one office or the other can speculate. As far as I am concerned, the last Caretaker Committee meeting we had, we did not discuss that.

“That is not what we are concerned with now. What we are concerned with is data collection. How to collect data without making mistakes. We are not going to be pressurized by sentiment and we don’t want to do the wrong thing.

“Let me say that zoning is not for the Caretaker Committee alone. It has to do with the President, it has to do with other major stakeholders, it has to do with a lot of people.

“I want to mute the speculation. The list is not from us (Caretaker Committee). The President is not in town. There is no way such a decision will be taken without consulting with the President, consulting with the governors and other major stakeholders. People should disregard the list. We are focused on delivering our mandate and we are to do it rightly.”

Meanwhile, the list that surfaced yesterday had claimed that the party had zoned the various national and party positions as follows: President – (South), Vice President – (North), Senate President – (South), Deputy Senate President – (North), House of Reps Speaker – (North), House of Reps Deputy Speaker – (South).

Others are: APC National Working Committee Zoning: (a) National Chairman – (North), (b) National Secretary – (South), (c) National Treasurer – (South), (d) Financial Secretary – (North), (e) Legal Officer – (North), (f) Welfare Officer – (South), (g) Auditor – (North), (h) National Youth Leader – (South), (i) National Woman Leader – (South), (j) Publicity Secretary – (South) and (k) Persons With Disability PWD Leader – (South).