APC heads for split as governors threaten to resign from NEC

The woes of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is being compounded as key leaders of the party including serving governors, ministers, party leaders as well as legislators are threatening to resign from the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) if their grievances are not addressed urgently.

Since the conduct of the APC party primaries, for the selection of candidates for the 2019 general elections, their have been violent protests and disapprovals of the conduct of the exercise by the Adams Oshiomhole led national executive of the party.

The Aggrieved persons have differently accused Mr. Oshiomhole and some executive officers of the party's National Working Committee (NWC) of fraud and biases and acting the scripts of certain influential elements in the party.

The aggrieved persons have also cited huge financial inducements in the selections of candidates and warned that if the problem is not addressed they would have no other choice but to step aside from the party NEC.

A top APC source who spoke to The Bridge News, over the weekend, said the aggrieved governors have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to save the APC from further disintegration by personally screening the lists of candidates with the NWC for all elective positions and ratify all the anomalies in the lists before the final submission to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The source who spoke to our correspondent, on the condition of anonymity said the aggrieved individuals have also given as a condition to remain in the party hierarchy the removal of Mr. Oshiomhole as the party chairman.

In the last two weeks, some governors have frequented the Presidential Villa to meet with President Buhari over the flawed conducts of party primaries in their respective states.

Some of the aggrieved governors who have met with the president on election issues are Abdelaziz Yari of Zamfara State, Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, Jibrilla Bindow of Adamawa State, Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State among others.

Our correspondent gathered from reliable sources close to the APC that the governors have told the president that if he does not call Oshiomhole to order and intervene in the crisis arising from election primaries, they would resign from NEC.

One of the source who does not want his name mention said “some of the governors have gone to see the president to make their grievances known and have told him that if he does not correct the fraud being perpetrated by Oshiomhole and some unnamed persons at the APC national secretariat, they would resign their membership of NEC”.

The source said the governors “lamented to the president that they can not be members of NEC and be treated shabbily by Oshiomhole and noted that it was better for them to be outside the party key structure and be treated like outsiders”.

Our correspondent gathered that President Buhari have assured the aggrieved governors and top party stalwarts of his readiness to address their grievances.

“The president wants to win re-election and he would not risked allowing the governors and top party leaders leave the APC. It would amount to political suicide. So he has assured them of his commitment to deal with the issue,” the source said.

Credit: The Bridge