The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Nantawe Yilwatda has said that the ruling party is not bothered over the defection of the 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi from the African Democratic Congress (ADC) to the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).
Yilwatda who spoke to newsmen at the sidelines of the ongoing purchase and return of nomination forms for the party’s primary election said, the opposition parties should sort out themselves because they have nothing to do with the ruling APC.
He equally insisted that the said resignation of about 18 members of the National Assembly from the ADC to the NDC cannot be a source of worry for the APC because it’s an infinitesimal number.
“If someone defects from ADC to another NDC opposition party, how does that affect APC? It doesn’t. Let them sort out their problems. APC is still solid, still united, and we are moving forward with strong numbers.
“What do you call a shocker? You said 17 lawmakers out of over 400—about 459. Seventeen out of 459 is less than 5 per cent. Should I be worried about that? I am not worried.
“You talked about NDC. When people join APC, they say we paid them to come. But when people defect among themselves, they don’t say anything. None of those defecting is from our party. They are fishing from the same pond”.
On the progress of the sales and return of nomination forms, the APC boss said the large turnout of aspirants who have besieged the party to buy forms for one position or the other shows that the people of my Nigeria are solidly behind the party.
“Nigerians are happy with what APC is doing. They love the party, they accept the party, and the party cuts across all the geopolitical zones of Nigeria. We’re also happy that our party is widely accepted by people. You could see the people coming in to buy our forms and how organised all the sections are.
“The party is too organised for what we are seeing. You can’t see this level of organisation, logistics, and preparation in any party in Nigeria, this can only be APC. And we’re happy that we’re seeing it happening under our party administration”.
Yilwatda however, ruled out the possibility of extending the days for the purchase and submission of forms, saying despite the fact that the party would have loved to, it can’t because of time constraints.
“No, we are not. We are time-bound. We would have loved to extend it, but we are time-bound. The Electoral Act also limits the timeline that we have to conduct our primaries and submit them. We also want to give ourselves some time so that we don’t fall into any trap in any form”.
For the screening, the National Chairman explained that the party will put measures in place so as to reduce the crowd and ensure that it is seamless.
“While it is good to have a crowd around the party to show presence, dominance, and mobilisation, this in itself is mobilisation. Just imagine the thousands of people coming in here every day—it shows acceptance.
“If any Nigerian sees these numbers and compares them with other party Secretariat, you won’t see one-tenth of this number anywhere else”, Yilwatda boasted.
