The All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee has again denied media reports that the office of national Chairman has been zoned to the North Central geo-political zone.
National Secretary of the APC CECPC, Senator James Akpanudoedehe, said this while speaking with newsmen on Monday at the party national secretariat in Abuja.
Investigation revealed that aspirants for the exalted office cut across the three geopolitical zones in the North.
The APC CECPC national secretary maintained that the issue of zoning of national offices was not part of the mandate given to the Governor Mai Mala Buni led Caretaker team when it was inaugurated in June 2020 following the dissolution of the National Working Committee led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole by the National Executive Committee of the party.
He said: “I have the mandate to report that whatever decision the CECPC takes and to the best of my knowledge the committee has not discussed zoning.”
He further claimed that aspirants smarting to foreclose the chances of their rivals and shut them out of the race were behind the rumour of zoning of National Chairman to the North Central.
“People are just flying what will favour their interest, all I know is that the caretaker committee has not discussed or reached a zoning decision.”
Media Director of the Senator Ali-Modu Sheriff Campaign Organisation, Senator Victor Lar equally dismissed media reports of zoning of national chairman to the North Central as laughable.
Senator Ali Modu Sheriff who incidentally is from the North West as the interim chairman and governor of Yobe state, Mai Mala Buni noted that no information on zoning has been communicated by the APC CECPC.
‘Senator Ali-Modu Sheriff, a two-term governor of Borno, is a frontline aspirant for the APC chairmanship.
“We find the purported story as very laughable because the organs of the party that are supposed to communicate that kind of information are not the ones communicating it.
“For that reason, we will take it with a pinch of salt.
“Again, the APC as a party has never adopted zoning, therefore, the story of it zoning the national championship to the North Central can better be described as a figment of the imaginations of those who planted it.
“We find the report as the very poor scheming of people who are scared of contesting the position with Sheriff.’
He submitted that those scary of the political profile of the former Borno state governor and his campaign were promoting the narrative on the zoning of offices which he dismissed as mere falsehood.
Lar maintained that the race for the APC national chairmanship was an open contest, saying that the best candidate should be allowed to emerge.
He said this was necessary for the party to be galvanised for victory in the 2023 general elections.
Lar appealed to APC members and Sheriff`s teeming supporters to remain calm and focused.
“We are on course and victory is certain.
“I want to assure that Sheriff will work amicably and with open heart with everyone, irrespective of religion and tribe when he becomes the party national chairman by God’s grace and with their support.”
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