APC National Convention: Governors confirm February sacrosanct amidst moves to stop event in court

Governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC on Sunday night met in Abuja to chart a way forward for the conduct of the long-awaited national convention.

At the end of the meeting, the governors upheld the February date for the national convention and passed a vote of confidence in the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee

Reminiscing the proposition, some aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress had made moves to stop the national convention from holding next month. The plaintiffs were seeking an order of the Federal High Court in Abuja to restrain the Governor Buni-led Caretaker- and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee from going ahead with the convention on the grounds that state congresses are yet to be completed in all the 36 states of the federation.

Joined as defendants in the suit are the APC, the Chairman of the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee and the Independent National Electoral Commission.

And reacting, the Director-General of the Progressives Governors Forum, Salihu Lukman said that the February date for the National Convention of the National Convention requires no consultation.

This was contained in a statement he personally signed and made available to newsmen.

Mr. Lukman said the more the party continue to allow the leadership of the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee to refuse to commence the process of organising the February APC National Convention, the more party leaders would have supported the CECPC in weakening the electoral prospect of the APC.

He said this is on account of the delay in implementation of the decision to organise the February National Convention, as there is hardly any internal party preparation for the 2023 electoral contest beyond individual leaders declaring their personal aspirations for offices.

Without any prejudice to the aspirations of leaders, Salihu Lukman said it is important that the party is able to set some minimum standards for the 2023 campaigns so that individual aspirants can orient their internal party mobilisation around those standards.

It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had agreed to February for the party’s national convention, but the body language of the Caretaker Committee seems to suggest otherwise.

Mr. Lukman suggests that the APC must not make the mistake of orientating its internal party mobilisation for the emergence of candidates for 2023 elections, especially Presidential Candidate only based on personality contest.

He appeals to party stakeholder, as the first challenge is to ensure that the CECPC has no option but to organise the APC National Convention in February as decided based on all the consultations that have taken place, and failure to do otherwise will mean going against the president Muhammadu Buhari’s order.