All Progressives Congress Governors have backed the position of the President, Muhammadu Buhari, to follow the constitution and decline to extend the tenure of the John Odigie-Oyegun led National Working Committee of the party.
Chairman of the APC Governor’s Forum, Governor Abdullahi Yari, while addressing journalists in Abuja on Wednesday said the governors have resolved to back a new congress to elect new officers of the party.
The move effectively puts an end to speculations that Odigie-Oyegun would continue in office after the expiration of his tenure as the chairman of the party.
Also at the briefing on Wednesday were Governor of Imo, Rochas Okorocha, Governor of Ogun, Ibikunle Amosun.
Yari stated: “We consulted and all the 24 governors of the APC are in the same page with Mr. President that we are going to respect our party constitution, we are going to respect the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“So, therefore, we collectively agreed that we will have congresses at all levels—local, state and national.
“Gentlemen of the press, you know yesterday we left you in the dark after the meeting and today we have seen so many captions that there is disagreement between the governors over the issue of party chairman or about the party leadership.
“No. We had a meeting with Mr. President yesterday, and we extended the meeting to night and we followed up with the consultations with the president now.
“And the committee set up by the National Secretariat of our party, headed by governor of Plateau State, is presenting its report later today. The governors are also meeting with the working committee today (Wednesday) so that we come up with convention committee names as well as timetable of the election.
“So, there is no deadlock in our meeting, we have progressed and very soon, you will have the names of the convention committee members as well as the timetable,” Yari stated.
Also , Okorocha denied there was a crisis in the APC.
“I just want to let you know that there is no crisis in the APC at all. And we want to use this opportunity to advise the media operatives to stop spreading rumors of crisis in APC. There is no single crisis in APC.
“The issue was one of people who believe that we did not have enough time to organize a party congress and run election. Some people felt that it was a good idea, but the most important thing is that if we do that, we will be contravening both our party constitution and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That is the major issue that we have that they call crisis. We do not have crisis
“This (Wednesday) morning, we met with Mr. President to fine-tune issues, one regarding the congress and we have resolved that the congresses at all levels and the chairman of the elongation committee, is also fine-tuning the arrangement in the same line. To this effect, the convention committee will be set out, it will be announced.
“But let me correct one impression, the issue of congress and convention does not mean that the previous people who have served the party have done badly. And it does not mean that they cannot come back or that they cannot re-contest, that is not it.
“We are simply saying that their tenure has ended and those who wish to re-contest can re-contest and can be elected into our party structure. So, we are all one as family and we are set to go for 2019 elections in victory,” he said.