By Ikechukwu Okaforadi
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the party can start and end its zonal congresses in June, and still hold a national convention in June, without having any crisis in the party.
Speaking at the party’s national Secretariat in Abuja after a National Working Committee (NWC) meeting of the party, the National Secretary, John James Akpanudoedehe, said however that the convention date will still depend on the decision of the party leaders.
He said “I want to assure you that there will be no crisis in our party in June. Convention can be done in June and congresses can start and end in June, but it all depends on what the leaders of this party agree upon. This committee is honest and we have never lied to Nigerians. We can always fight and resolve at family level.”
Akpanudoedehe also said that the party’s nationwide membership registration and revalidation exercise has come to an end, hence the process of collation from Committees have commenced, adding “over 21 states have submitted. Part of the delay is that some of them are trying to tidy up their report before submitting to the committee.”
He further said the party is very conscious of Nigeria as a country not only the congresses, especially on the need to make the party strong.
“We just welcome the Governor of Cross River State and assuming it is Congress, how would we have accommodated him. Be rest assured that the overall interest is paramount to us. We have taken lots of things into consideration to ensure that the party is peaceful and united.
“We are aware that party members are desiring to hear from the Caretaker Committee. I can tell you that we are looking into so many things and I can tell you that we have to consult extensively before we will do anything. We have major stakeholders like Mr President, Vice President, Governors among others. We have to consult so that when we are coming out, there will be no dissenting voice. We are still at the level of consensus.
“We have lots of problems in the country, not only the national Congress of the party. We have serious security issues like the agitations going on in the zones.
In reference to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council primaries, the APC National Secretary said “The meeting was an emergency one, one item on the agenda for the meeting was to ratify the APC FCT Area Council primaries, but we had to step down the item because of the additional information we needed.
“We have said that if you are to disqualify anybody, the Caretaker Committee must see clearly why it should be so. We are also mindful of the deadline from INEC and have given them time with which to supply us the documents we requested from them.”
