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The All Progressives Congress (APC) has reacted to reports of purported ‘parallel’ Local Government Area (LGA) Congresses conducted in some states describing them as futile and pointless.
Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe, National Secretary of the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) said this in an interview with journalists at the Party’s National Secretariat on the outcome of Saturday’s APC LGA Congresses.
Akpanudoedehe described the LGA Congresses as very successful.
“The APC is very structured. We set up a committee and the committee went to conduct the LGA Congresses. The next step will be an appeal process and anyone with issues will go to the appeal committee and if you are not satisfied with the appeal exercise, the national caretaker committee will handle it. That is our structure.” The CECPC Secretary said.
On reported ‘parallel’ congresses, Akpanudoedehe said, “The supervising institution of a political party is INEC. We write to INEC and by the rule of the land, we are to give them notice. We also wrote to INEC stating the names of people to conduct the congresses and the venue of the Congresses.
“We also announced locally stating the time of the congress and we informed the security agencies for protection. If you move away from the organization stipulated by INEC, the exercise can be described the way anybody chooses to. “This is the headquarters of the APC, if you now go and set up something outside here, it is no more APC. I am just hearing from you (journalists) that there was a parallel congress.”
On the APC NEC resolution that party members should desist from taking the Party to court and strictly explore internal dispute resolution mechanisms provided by the Party’s constitution, Akpanudoedehe said the CECPC will compile a list of cases and report to the National Executive Committee (NEC). “The Party is already compiling the list of all the cases…We will inform the NEC and a decision will be taken by NEC. The CECPC stands by the NEC resolutions.
He expressed the commitment of Governor Mai Mala Buni-led CECPC to achieve the President Muhammadu Buhari charge to entrench internal democracy in the APC and ensure that party members are key stakeholders in decision processes. “We have a clear mandate of Mr. President that the party should be given to the grassroots, the people,” Akpanudoedehe stated.
