AHEAD national convention: APC leaders go for broke

VARIOUS caucuses within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are digging in to gain  a superior advantage ahead the national convention of the party coming up next Saturday in Abuja, amid raging and discontent across the state chapters of the party.

A number of party buffs are reportedly still fuming over the alleged manipulation of the ward, local and state congresses of the party held across the country last month, except in Ekiti and Osun states, where governorship elections will take place on July 14 and September 22 respectively.

The decision of the APC national leadership to recognise the state executives elected during the state congresses had led to some party members either going to court to challenge the action or remain resolute in their demand that they were the legitimate state party organ.

A total of 6,800 delegates are expected to participate in the convention designed to elect the new National Working Committee (NWC) to succeed the current one under Chief John Odigie-Oyegun in his capacity as national chairman..

With less than five days to the convention, major power blocs comprising members of the National Assembly elected on APC platform, leaders of the new Peoples Democratic Party (PDP faction, among others, were maintaining their stance against the scale of perceived fraud perpetrated supposedly by state governors in collaboration with other influential caucuses during the ward, local and state congresses.

Moves to reconcile the different executives arising from the conduct of parallel congresses have not yielded positive results in a number of states, including  Ondo, Enugu, Imo, Bauchi and Kano, where factional leaders have been trying to consolidate.

The aggrieved members have refused to embrace the olive branch from state governors and other party leaders advised by the national organs of the APC to lead the reconciliation.

In Bauchi State, some party faithful from the constituency of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara, said they were already considering another party member as replacement for him in the next general election.

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Reports indicated a yawning gap among APC leaders from the South-East, following discordant tunes on the contest for the national offices zoned to the area by the party.

Some leaders of the party distanced themselves from the purported endorsement of some contestants seeking re-election, by a few party faithful, who met on Friday in the state capital.

However, loyalists of the late president of the Senate, Dr Chuba Okadigbo who are APC members are backing Chief  Chidi Nwogu for the post of national organising secretary of the party.

Acting under the aegis of the Chuba Okadigbo Rainbow Organisation in APC, they adopted Honourable Nwogu at a meeting of the leaders of the group in Abuja.

The organisation was formed by Dr Okadigbo as an umbrella political body for all his supporters nationwide. Okadigbo used the organisation when he ran as vice presidential candidate with President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2003 presidential election.

They explained that their support for Nwogu was due to his loyalty to their leader throughout the period he contested with Buhari for the Presidency in 2003.

In a communiqué signed by the national leader of the organisation and Owelle Awkuzu, Chief Peter Emenaka; North-East coordinator, AlhajiYakubu Das and the South-West leader, Honourable Dare Falade, they urged President Buhari to honour Okadigbo by accepting Nwogu as the next APC national organising secretary.

They advised him to be wary of certain persons who were trying to deceive the public by parading themselves as Okadigbo’s men in a frantic bid to obtain the endorsement of President Buhari and other APC leaders.