A group in the governing All Progressives Congress, APC under the aegis of Concerned APC Stakeholders have called for the urgent convocation of a National Convention where new leaders will be elected in order to set the party on a prosperous path.
At a press briefing in Abuja, a co-conver of the group, Mr. Ayo Oyalowo, also called on all Party Members who have aspirations for any position in the forthcoming national convention to openly declare their interests without the fear of being denied the right to contest at the convention.
The group said it had earlier written several letters to different party leaders including Nigeria’s President to alert them to alleged mismanagement of party affairs that could lead the party to possible destruction.
Mr. Oyalowo while stating that the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee has not carried out its task of organising a convention, emphasised the need for a new leadership for the party.
“The Concerned APC Stakeholders is calling for the immediate resignation of the Buni-led Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee for their glaring failures in managing the affairs of the party; failure of which the Committee should be immediately dissolved and a new committee whose task will be to immediately conduct the National Convention of the party be constituted.
“In the same vein, we are calling on all concerned members of the party across the country, and particularly our leaders, to join hands and ensure that we elect a National Working Committee that will truly represent the interest and aspirations of genuine APC members.
“The party is in urgent need of an inclusive NWC that will look holistically at the issues bedeviling the party and resolve them once and for all” he said.
Speaking on the controversial direct primaries mode as passed by the National Assembly, the group demanded that the APC’s forthcoming national convention must be an elective one and not a consensus arrangement.
“We are more than determined to ensure that the upcoming convention would be an elective one, and that no set of people, no matter how powerful or highly placed, would impose leadership on the party in the name of consensus.
“It is on the back of this that the Concerned APC Stakeholders wholeheartedly throw its weight behind the direct primary option of electing candidates for political parties.
“For us in the APC, this singular action of the National Assembly which has also received the endorsement of the tripartite committee is a victory for internal party democracy, one that will return the party to the ordinary members who have toiled day and night for the success of the party and not a few privileged and selfish individuals” the group said.
Confidence Okwuchi
