APC Postpones NEC, Caucus Meeting, may never hold convention – spokesman

The ruling All Progressive Congress may never hold the long awaited National convention for inability to hold the National Executive Council (NEC), Caucus meeting which will determine a tentative date for the convention.

The party in a statement signed by the National publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi at the party secretariat on Thursday reads, “The National Caucus and National Executive Committee (NEC) meetings of the All Progressives Congress (APC) scheduled for April 24 and 25, 2017 respectively have been postponed”.

The postponement according to the statement is due to unexpected development, stressing that new dates for the meeting will be communicated in due course.

The APC had been involved in financial crunch which sources link to the reason for the postponement.

The party spokesman earlier told daily times in a telephone conversation that the party might not be able to hold its national Convention due to the party’s inability to hold the stipulated National Executive Council (NEC) meeting.

“I have said it often that nobody has suspended the national convention of the APC. It is only the NEC that can do that and the body has not met. The national Working Committee can advice the NEC on a date, but cannot override them. The NEC is planning to meet by next week, until that meeting, no tentative date has been fixed for the convention. A date can be fixed by the NWC with ratification from NEC”.

A forum of the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) members has earlier written a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari demanding for urgent NEC meeting of the party, decrying the leadership of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) led by the National Chairman, Chief John Oyegun.

The forum said “If nothing is done by the President, the situation might lead to an unnecessary intra-party cracks which will degenerate to an ugly situation in the party”.

A copy of the said letter signed by a National Ex-official, South-west coordinator, Hon. Omolayo O. Akintola was made available to newsmen in Abuja on Sunday 6th April, 2017 tagged “Save our party-APC”, addressed to President Buhari.

It reads: “We strongly feel that an urgent call on the appropriate quarters of the party be made to ensure that NEC meeting of our party as provided by Article 25 of our party constitution is obeyed to quarantine resolution of matters affecting the party amicably.

“We are equally greatly displeased with the ways of handling party matters solely by the National Working Committee only without recourse to the NEC from which NWC derived her powers.

“Also to be noted for appropriate advice is the exclusion of sizable number of federating states from scheme of things within the party because many states are not presently represented by party officers on the current National Working Committee, hence, the need to be having regular NEC meetings pending the much awaited amendment to the present party constitution.

“We, therefore, deemed it necessary putting this letter across for your timely actions to save our great party from preventable, avoidable and unnecessary party in-house cracks that the present situation might generate.

“We strongly believe in your Excellency’s ability and sagacity to normalize things within a good time frame”.
The APC Non-NWC (NEC) members’ forum is a body of national officers of the party who are not members of the National Working Committee.

The forum also complained that they have written several letters to the national chairman Chief Oyegun without any positive reactions hence this save our party’s request to Mr. President.

The National Chairman of the party Chief John Odigie oyegun had earlier told journalists during the APC governor’s meeting with the party NWC members at the party Secretariat in Abuja that the scheduled “Mini non- elective national convention” will hold on the 25th April, 2017.