The 24 governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, have agreed with President Muhammadu Buhari that APC constitution should be respected in electing a new National Working Committee, NWC, members for the party.
This was disclosed by the Zamfara State governor, Abdulaziz Yari after Buhari met with some of the governors.
President Buhari had at the party’s National Executive Committee’s meeting last week declared as illegal, a proposal for the extension of the tenure of the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led NWC of the party. An initial meeting to discuss the matter held on Tuesday but it ended in a deadlock.
On Wednesday, five governors again met with the president and agreed to hold ward congresses and a national convention.
The governors include Abdulazeez Yari (Zamfara) Simon Lalong (Plateau), Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano) and Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun).
Speaking on their behalf, Yari told state house correspondents that all the governors are on “the same page with Mr. President”.
According to him, they have collectively agreed that the party’s congress will hold at all levels.
“Gentlemen of the press, you know yesterday we left you in the dark after the meeting and today we have seen so many captions that there is disagreement between the governors over the issue of party chairman or about the party leadership,” Yari said.
“No. We had a meeting with Mr. President yesterday (Tuesday), and we extended the meeting tonight and we followed up with the consultations with the President now.
“We consulted and all the 24 governors of the APC are in the same page with Mr. President that we are going to respect our party constitution, we are going to respect the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So therefore, we collectively agreed that we will have congresses at all levels – local, state and national.
“And the committee set up by the national secretariat of our party headed by governor of Plateau state, is presenting its report later today. The governors are also meeting with the working committee today so that we come up with convention committee names as well as timetable of the election.
“So, there is no deadlock in our meeting, we have progressed and very soon you will have the names of the convention committee members as well as the timetable.”
Also speaking, Okorocha said they had fine-tuned issues with the president. He said the agreement to hold the congress does not mean the present leadership performed badly.
“I just want to let you know that there is no crisis in the APC at all. There is no single crisis in APC,” Okorocha said.
“The issue was one of people who believe that we did not have enough time to organise a party congress and run an election. Some people felt that it was a good idea but the most important thing is that, if we do that we will be contravening both our party constitution and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“To this effect, the convention committee will be set out, it will be announced.
“But let me correct one impression, the issue of congress and convention does not mean that the previous people who have served the party have done badly. And it does not mean that they cannot come back or that they cannot re-contest, that is not it.
“We are simply saying that their tenure has ended and those who wish to re-contest can re-contest and can be elected to our party structure. So we are all one as a family and we are set to go for 2019 elections in victory.”
