APC National Convention: Again Group Threatens Mai Mala-Buni CECPC On Deadline

Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressive Congress, APC, may witness major crisis early next year should it fail to conduct its National Convention as recently rescheduled, Ezenwoko’s Blog reports.

This is as a faction of the party is sending warnings to Governor Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) over the delayed party convention.

It could be recalled that the ruling party announced weeks ago that its convention will hold February 5, 2022.

In its statement earlier, the convention committee attributed the yuletide period and factional party crisis to why it couldn’t hold its National Convention this year.

The Governor of Kebbi State who doubles as the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, Atiku Bagudu, had said while speaking after the party’s tripartite meeting held on Monday, November 22 in Aso Villa that a committee for the convention will be set up very soon.

Giving further explanation on why the party could not go on with the convention this year like the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the ruling party said the postponement of the exercise till next year was due to the protracted crises in Anambra, Zamfara and other state chapters, logistic challenges, preparation by Christians for Christmas and the proposed governorship election in Ekiti State.

However, A sub-group of the ruling party identified as the Progressive Mandate Movement (PMM), in a statement issued on Sunday, December 26, threatened to occupy the national secretariat of the party if the committee failed to conduct the convention on the new date.

Ezenwoko’s Blog reports that PMM also demanded the immediate release of the timetable and schedule of activities for the national convention, adding that if nothing is done by January 5, 2022, it will make the ‘Buhari House’ national secretariat of the party ungovernable for the CECPC.

The statement signed by the group’s National Coordinator, Hon. Abdullahi Mohammed and Secretary, Comrade Adekunle Fijabi, noted that it will launch operation #OccupyAPCNationalSecretariat in order to get party leaders to do the “right thing”.

The statement claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari had desired the APC National Convention to hold in December 2021 but due to appeals by the Buni-led CECPC, the Presidency accepted February 2022.

The statement read in part, “For some of our current leaders who were there during the merger processes that led to the formation of APC, this organisation has always been in the forefront of upholding the progressive ideology of our party and we will not stop at this critical period.

“The delay in conducting the overdue APC national convention is already giving the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) some advantages, making it look like nobody is in charge of the governing party.

“We, therefore, call on the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led National Caretaker Committee not to go beyond February 5 to hold our party’s National Convention.

“This group is in possession of the instructions given to the Caretaker Committee by the Presidency and we appeal to the CECPC to respect our leader and President Muhammadu Buhari by releasing to the public all the necessary information concerning the forthcoming National Convention.

“We also warn that if nothing is made public before January 5, 2022, we shall launch an aggressive Operation #OccupyApcNationalSecretariat to force our leaders to do the right thing.

“We make bold to say that we do not have another party and we will not allow our leaders to make mistakes that will eventually cause us to lose elections in 2023.”

Download NAIJA NEWS app: