Some stakeholders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) under the platform of the Concerned APC Stakeholders has demanded the immediate resignation of entire members of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) led by the Yove state governor Mai Mala Buni.
The APC members said if the committee refuse to resign it should be immediately dissolved and a new one that will conduct a national convention be put in place.
The ruling party members (mostly youths) accused the Buni-led Caretaker Committee of planning another extension of its tenure and not readiness to conduct a national convention.
Addressing a press conference Thursday in Abuja, a co-conver of the group, Ayo Oyalowo, also called on all party members who have aspirations for any position in the forthcoming national convention to come out and declare their interests without the fear of being denied the right to contest at the convention.
“The Concerned APC Stakeholders is calling for the immediate resignation of the Buni-led Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee for their glaring failures in managing the affairs of the party; failure of which the Committee should be immediately dissolved and a new committee whose task will be to immediately conduct the National Convention of the party be constituted.
“In the same vein, we are calling on all concerned members of the party across the country, and particularly our leaders, to join hands and ensure that we elect a National Working Committee that will truly represent the interest and aspirations of genuine APC members.
“The party is in urgent need of an inclusive NWC that will look holistically at the issues bedeviling the party and resolve them once and for all.”
On the controversial direct primaries mode as passed by the National Assembly, the group demanded that even the forthcoming national convention must be an elective one and not a consensus arrangement.
“We are more than determined to ensure that the upcoming convention would be an elective one, and that no set of people, no matter how powerful or highly placed, would impose leadership on the party in the name of consensus.
“It is on the back of this that the Concerned APC Stakeholders wholeheartedly throw its weight behind the direct primary option of electing candidates for political parties.
“For us in the APC, this singular action of the National Assembly which has also received the endorsement of the tripartite committee is a victory for internal party democracy, one that will return the party to the ordinary members who have toiled day and night for the success of the party and not a few privileged and selfish individuals.”
On why the party lost Anambra state governorship election, Oyalowo blamed the Caretaker Committee’s inability to conduct an acceptable primary election.
“Little wonder that almost all the aspirants of the party in the primary election turned the other way after they had been denied the right to exercise their rights as full fledged members in a free and fair contest.
“To make matters worse, the Caretaker Committee, rather than managed the fallout of that unfortunate primary elections, busied itself pursing opposition party members to join the APC. But even with almost all the opposition party members emptying into the APC, the party still had the worse outing in the election. Indeed, only politicians living in the yesteryears still believe that the influx of opposition party members to a party is all that was needed to win elections.
“There is no gain saying the glaring reality that lies ahead if the Buni-led Caretaker Committee is allowed to hold forth at this time the APC needs to close ranks, heal and return to the order that endeared it to Nigerians. Incidentally, the Abdullahi Adamu-led National Reconciliation Committee that is meant to help achieve some of these tasks is yet to fully kick off.
“Apart from the fact that the committee is still struggling to find its feet in spite of the huge task ahead and the limited time at its disposal, it is left to be seen how much this piecemeal approach the Buniled committee has adopted, just to be seen as doing the needful, will help to get us out of the woods. What is certain however is that we shall not sit and watch a party we have contributed so much in building go down the drain as a result of the selfish actions of a few.”
