• Oyegun meets state party chairmen
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The brewing crisis in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) appears unrelenting as some members of the party’s National Executive Committee and non-members of the National Working Committee (NWC) have protested the postponement of the NEC and National Caucus meetings earlier scheduled for April 24 and 25 respectively.
The group which had earlier pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene, last Monday wrote another letter titled: ‘Save our party’ to both Buhari and his deputy, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.
The leadership of the APC had in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, defended the cancelation of the two events, saying it was due to “unexpected developments.”
But just as the aggrieved NEC members reached out to President Buhari for his intervention, the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, engaged APC state chairmen in a crucial closed-door meeting last Monday to try and galvanise their support.
The NEC members had in their first letter to the president dated April 6, 2017, which was signed by a National Ex-officio, South-west coordinator, Hon. Omolayo O. Akintola, and tagged: ‘Save our party-APC,’ demanded an urgent NEC meeting of the party to save it from “preventable, avoidable and unnecessary intra-party cracks that the present situation might generate.”
They had expressed concern that Oyegun had not responded to their complaints hence this ‘Save our party’ request.”
Akintola, said the present protest letter is to serve as a reminder to the president on the need to act on their request.
The group’s letter read: “Arising from our forum’s meeting held this day, April 20, 2017 which had earlier been fixed in the anticipation of NEC meeting fixed for April 25, 2017 which was postponed about five or four days ago necessitated the writing of this letter as a considered necessary reminder hinged on the fundamental importance of the said letter dated 6/4/2017 titled: ‘Save our party.’
“As co-stakeholders and representatives of the federating states in our great party, we humble deemed it fit to painstakingly wait for your excellency’s expected reaction/steps to properly address the undiluted facts/issues raised in the said letter through political approaches or dialogue/meeting that your excellency might consider most convenient.”
It was learnt from highly reliable sources that non-NWC members met in an undisclosed hotel in Abuja in the early hours yesterday to agree on a common position regarding the affairs of the party.
The source also alleged that both the non-NWC forum and the forum of APC state chairmen had agreed to move a motion of vote of no confidence on Oyegun whenever the NEC is held.
