The Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Convention Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) chaired by Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, has urged Nigerians, especially leaders and members of the ruling party to ignore the Director-General (DG) of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), Salihu Lukman, over his recent allegations against it.
When contacted on Tuesday to react to a statement issued by Lukman, in which he accused the APCCECC of having plans to elongate its tenure, failing to call for meetings and taking unilateral decisions, the Secretary, Senator Akpan Akpanudoedehe, simply said, “Ignore it.”
The DG of PGF had in a statement issued on Monday and titled ‘APC’s Litmus Tests,’ said the Buni-led leadership was repeating the mistakes made by the immediate past national leadership of the ruling party.
Lukman said the Adams Oshiomhole-led leadership of the APC failed to call for meetings of the organs of the party, a situation that is recurring under the Buni-led APCCECC.
Lukman further alleged that most of the decisions so far taken by the APCCECC were done by Buni and Akpanudoedehe.
The DG of PGF had also criticised the recent extension by three weeks, of the ongoing nationwide membership registration and revalidation exercise by the APC. According to him, the “needless extension” of the exercise only serves to strengthen the suspicions that the caretaker committee was reluctant to organise a national convention where new leadership of the party will be elected.
A prominent member of the APCCECC, who also spoke to our correspondent on Tuesday, however, condemned Lukman for calling out the APC leadership to which the PGF belongs.
The APC chieftain, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as the Buni-led committee had decided not to reply the DG of PGF, said Lukman lacked knowledge of the internal workings of the party.
He said, “If somebody does not know the workings of the party, do you expect us to escalate what is going on as an insider? If someone says only the chairman and the secretary of the party are running the party, who else should have run it?
“The caretaker committee is structured like a board, such that only two names were mentioned by the National Executive Committee to maintain the executive positions – chairman and secretary. The rest are like members of a board; they come to work only when we call on them.
“The offices that he is thinking about, to be like the National Working Committee, do not exist here. Our duty is to bring peace to the party and we are going to do that internally. It is not for us to escalate that.”
When reminded of the allegation that meetings are not being called, the source said, “It is a lie. There is no decision that we take that is not from the stakeholders.”
