National Chairman of the Action Congress
of Nigeria, Chief Bisi Akande, and Chief Tom Ikimi are currently locked
in the battle for the chairmanship of the All Progressives Party,
findings by The PUNCH on Monday have revealed.
The battle to head the
yet-to-be-registered merger party between Akande and Ikimi followed the
ceding of the interim national chairmanship to the ACN by the
stakeholders.
Curiously too, same scenario on Monday
obtained in the Congress for Progressive Change, a major arm of the
merger and to which the post of the National Secretary of the APC has
been zoned.
A source at the top hierarchy of the APC
who spoke to our correspondent on Monday night said the self-interest
factor had set into the affairs of the new party which is set to
announce its Interim Executive Committee on Tuesday (today).
The nine-member IEC will manage the affairs of the party till its registration by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The source said, “As you already know,
the APC chairmanship has been ceded to the ACN, the CPC is to produce
secretary while the ANPP will produce the treasurer when the party
eventually gets registered.
“We are first of all human beings and
there are of course interests. For the ACN, where the chairmanship was
given, there are issues because two of their leading figures, Chief Tom
Ikimi, who has been a visible member of the party’s merger committee,
and Bisi Akande have shown interest.”
For the CPC, the source said, “It is not
different. Its members too are having their own issues because the
current National Secretary of the Party, Alhaji Buba Galadima, and an
equally strong member of the party, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, as well as the
party’s Publicity Secretary, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin are also interested.
“We’ve not heard much from the ANPP on who they are putting forward as treasurer.”
According to the informed insider,
internal wrangling among the three merging political parties is largely
responsible for the decision by the leadership of APC to settle for an
interim executive committee to pursue the registration of the party.
The source said, “You will agree with me that we can do with less of this distraction for now.”
Our correspondent gathered after the party had been registered, an Interim Management Committee would replace the IEC.
National Publicity Secretary of the ACN,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said he was not aware that Akande and Ikimi were
contending for the chairmanship slot of the APC
But when contacted, National Publicity
Secretary of the CPC, Rotimi Fashakin, dismissed the issue of internal
wrangling within the party as a mere speculation.
Fashakin however confirmed that a
meeting had been scheduled to hold today (Tuesday). Though the CPC
spokesman said he did not know whether the APC IEC would be unveiled at
the meeting, The PUNCH reliably learnt that except the stakeholders have a change of heart, the nine members of the IEC would be announced today.
He said, “What the leadership of our
parties has decided is that three officials from each of the merging
parties recognised by law will for now serve as members of the Interim
Executive Committee.
“For the avoidance of doubt these
officials are the national chairmen, national secretaries and national
treasurers of the three parties involved in the merger.”
He further explained that members of the
IEC would be involved in the correspondence with INEC “until our
registration process is concluded.”
For the ACN, Akande who is the current
National Chairman of the party and his counterparts in the ANPP and CPC,
Chief Ogbonaya Onu and Tony Momoh, respectively are automatic members
of the committee.
A leading member of the proposed APC,
who was the candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party in the 2011
elections, Ibrahim Shekarau, had told journalists in Kano on Sunday that
a decision to constitute the committee had been reached.
Shekarau refuted claims that Akande had been endorsed as the Interim National Chairman of the proposed APC.
He, however, explained that Akande was
eligible to be nominated by the nine-man Interim Management to be set up
by the party, if it so desired.
Shekarau, during a press conference in
Kano, explained that that explanation became necessary so as to put the
records straight as well as to dismiss speculations that Akande had been
endorsed as the Interim Chairman of the APC.
The PUNCH
The PUNCH
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anyhow una do am, fine. PDP must go. we are tired.
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