APC Denies Shifting National Convention To June

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has refuted reports that its planned February National Convention has been shifted to June 2022, stating that plans for the convention to hold in February were under way.

A statement from Mr John James Akpanudoedehe, the Secretary of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, CECPC, of the party, on Wednesday said date for party activities such as meetings, Primaries, Congresses and National Convention are communicated through well-known official channels and not through any other sources.

He said the reports that the party had suspended its convention was “simply bent on causing confusion and fomenting crisis through misinformation. We should not enable them.”

The statement further said, “As a focus-driven, process-oriented political party, the APC Caretaker Committee under the leadership of Governor Mai Mala Buni will not be distracted by self-serving antics of these sponsors of fake news.

“The APC Caretaker Committee is already embarking on nationwide consultations with Party stakeholders to prepare the ground for a rancour-free National Convention. To this end, the sub-committee on budgeting and other substructures will be set up in due course. “

The party has been enmeshed in crisis with calls for suspension of the February convention to enable the party solve crises emanating from last state congresses in Zamfara, Rivers, Osun and Anambra states, among others.

The caretaker committee was set up more than a year ago to organize a national convention. It had fixed June 2021 for the party’s convention to elect substantive national party executive but had to be shifted.

While some governors under the aegis of Progressives Governors Forum want the February convention, some are hellbent on pushing for a shift so that the convention can be conducted the same day with the party’s presidential primary, a development that is tearing the party apart.

But according to the statement from the party’s scribe, the party is in good hands and will organise a peaceful convention at a date not yet known.