Oyegun Moves to Placate Aggrieved NEC Members

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

Following a protest letter written to President Muhammadu Buhari by the non-members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, met with some of the affected National Executive Council (NEC) members to seek their understanding of the state of things.

The national chairman who held a closed-door meeting with the NEC members yesterday at the party’s national secretariat, explained to them the difficult position the party had found itself in trying to get the government to patronise members who have contributed to its electoral victory.

Some of the non-NWC members of the APC NEC  had in their protest letter which was signed by a National Ex-Officio, South-west Coordinator, Hon. Omolayo O. Akintola, warned the president that if nothing is done by their grievances the situation might lead to “preventable, avoidable and unnecessary intra-party cracks that the present situation might generate.”

However, THISDAY gathered from some reliable sources who attended the emergency meeting that the national chairman practically begged the 18 out of 27 non-NWC (NEC) members.

One of the sources said: “The chairman had noticed that the NEC members were planning to pass a vote of confidence in him during the coming NEC meeting, that is why he quickly introduced a damage control meeting with us to prevent the unforeseen steps that we may take. So, based on that we had a fair start with him. In fact, the chairman wanted us to grant press conference after the meeting to show that all is well but we refused.

“He was giving excuses on why our request had not been granted. He even blamed the presidency style of governance and saying this is an unusual government. We are pursuing a modest request that all the people who worked for the party will be proud of.”

Part of the request in the said letter read: “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 party amicably.

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