The National Executive Committee of the All Progressives Congress will today (Monday) at its meeting take a final decision on the tenure of the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee.
Ahead of the meeting, which from all indications will be stormy, governors and state chairmen of the party arrived in Abuja on Sunday.
NEC will review the decision it took in February, when it said the tenure of the party’s officials had been extended.
The tenure of Oyegun and other NWC members will come to an end on June 28, 2018.
But NEC, at its meeting on February 27, 2018, approved a one-year tenure extension for the party’s officials.
However, at its meeting on March 27, President Muhammadu Buhari opposed the tenure extension, saying it was illegal.
Following the President’s objection, the party set up a 10-member committee to advise it on the issue.
Last week, the APC governors, who initially supported the tenure extension, backed Buhari’s call for fresh congresses.
On Sunday in Abuja, it was gathered that members of the NEC, including governors and state chairmen, who were opposed to tenure elongation for the Oyegun-led NWC, met to perfect their strategies ahead of the Monday meeting.
Also, Oyegun’s supporters, including the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, had reportedly been mobilising support for the chairman.
The hope of Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee of the party to get tenure elongation received another blow on Sunday as some members of the National Executive Committee of the party said tenure elongation would not be supported.
Meeting under the Forum of APC Non-NWC members who are NEC members, they said that they would align with President Muhammadu Buhari on fresh congresses.
Some members of the forum in Abuja on Sunday said they had agreed to support Buhari and the position would be canvassed at the NEC meeting on Monday (today).
The meeting was chaired by Mr. Nasir Danu, while Jock Alamba read its communique.
He said elections must hold into all party offices across the country.
Alamba said, “We wish to state clearly that we stand with our dear President, Muhammadu Buhari, on his position that elections into to party offices in wards, local government areas and states and national be conducted.
“We share Mr. President’s unalloyed commitment to the rule of law and fine tenets of internal democracy.
“He has in different forums demonstrated his commitment to democracy as exemplified in the gubernatorial and senatorial elections which opposition political parties won in states like Anambra and the Rivers under his watch.”
He added that Buhari’s concern for due process was legendary, adding that the party should not underrate his concern “since the law is an ass, our most likely 2019 presidential and other electoral victories should not be toyed or placed in jeopardy with legal niceties or put in the way of fortune hunters.”
He said more than 99 per cent of the entire membership of the party, as well as governors in the party, are in support President’s second term bid.
Meanwhile, our correspondent gathered on Sunday that there were three items listed for discussion at the party’s NEC meeting today.
The items, according to sources in the party, are the proposed amendment to the party’s constitution, the report of the Mallam Nasir el-Rufai’s committee on constitutional reform and the report of technical committee on tenure elongation headed by Governor Simeon Lalong of Plateau State.
The spokesman for the party, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, confirmed the items listed for discussion at the meeting in an interview with our correspondent.
He said, “Basically, there are three items listed for discussion at the NEC meeting. We will discuss constitutional amendments, the El-Rufai committee report and that of Governor Lalong.
“As far as we are concerned and as far and as far as the party is concerned, we have not foreclosed the issue of tenure extension. Only NEC can take another decision on the matter.”
