A meeting of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) on Tuesday on how to share the offices of its national officers ended in yet another stalemate, as the merger committee of the three merging parties – the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigeria Peoples’ Party (ANPP) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) were yet to agree on who should occupy what post.
Some members of the Democratic Peoples’ Party (DPP) and the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) are also involved in the merger.
Spokesman for the Merger Committee, Chief Tom Ikimi, said the matter was being addressed.
While both the ACN and the CPC had been allocated five slots each in the proposed Interim Management Committee of the APC, ANPP was allocated five positions.
In the IMC of the party, the ACN is producing the national chairman while the ANPP is producing the national secretary and CPC, treasurer.
Within the ACN, the present National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande and the merger committee chairman, Chief Tom Ikimi are those bidding to be the APC chair.
However, a source in the merger arrangement said that some members of the merger committees led by the ANPP are not comfortable with the seeming emergence of Akande and have rather opted for the chairman of the ACN merger contact committee, Ikimi, as the chairman.
The source said that those opposed to the candidature of Akande preferred that Ikimi should be allowed to ascend to the position of chairman because of the role he has played in steering the merger party to this stage.
Meanwhile, the National Leader of the CPC and its former presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari is to pick the APC National Secretary from within his party.
Name of officers, who are to occupy these offices in the interim have been submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission as demanded by the electoral body.
However, the Commission was said to have responded and demanded that the names of other officers of the proposed party be supplied as well.
This was said to have necessitated the meeting of the Ikimi-led committee in Abuja on Tuesday.
However, at the end of the meeting, no concrete decision was reached as representatives of the three parties were scheduled to meet with the caucus of their parties in Abuja on Tuesday night.
Ikimi, who spoke after the meeting, said, “We have reviewed the processes that are ongoing with regards to our registration and look into various issues in order to enable us to carry all the merging parties along.
“This night, there would be caucus meetings of the merging parties and so we have worked out various things which we want to take to the caucus meetings where we would meet with the leaders of our various parties to enable us finalise these matters.
“On interim officers, we have looked into the various issues to enable us carry all the merging parties along.
“We have some forms from INEC, asking for the names of interim officers. At the end of the meeting with our caucus, we should be able to resolve these matters.”
But spokesman of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) Fashakin said the national chairman, national secretary, and national treasurer positions had been filed, stressing that the occupants of these positions were picked from the set of those who signed the application for the merger party registration that was submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He however refused to reveal the names of the officers, promising that the names would be revealed before the end of the week.
On the interim officers’ selection, Fashakin said: “Yes, I told you clearly. You will recall that two weeks ago there was a submission to INEC on behalf of APC and a communication passed on to INEC and signed by all the three chairmen, secretaries and treasurers of the legacy parties. The sets of signatories made that submission to INEC. So among them a chairman was taken, a secretary was taken and a treasurer was taken.”
Pressed to state who the persons are he said: “You will know in due course. Yes, the name is known, but we are still talking about expanding that committee so we can still have juggling. But we are talking about a matter of one or two days. You will know in due course. But know that one of them there is the chairman, one of them there is the national secretary and one of them there is the national treasurer.”
Speaking on when the names of the party executives will be revealed, Fashakin said, “Expect the final solution before the end of the week … Already the party’s application for registration is with INEC, so it’s only small that remains. The bulk of the submission is there. Those areas and positions that are known to law are already settled with INEC and with the Electoral Act; it’s the chairman, national secretary and the treasurer –these positions are the ones the law requires to sign any application to INEC as regards merger. So those positions are already settled with INEC. We submitted constitutions that, yes, all these positions need to be filled so we get through that.
He however refuted claims that there was rancour over the emergence of the officials, saying: “We are looking at APC, not ANPP or CPC anymore. Yes, indeed they still exist because APC has not been formally registered. But in the spirit of it, those parties have agreed to be subsumed in the APC; so among them you have the chairman, secretary and treasurer. There is no rancour. The rancour is only in the minds of PDP, because they are expecting rancour and exchange of fisticuffs. They are expecting us to disagree.”
Fashakin added that the allocation of offices to other parties would be sorted out amicably and that specific slots were not necessarily allotted since all parties have to be considered in the arrangement. “We have looked at some of these positions like family members. So it is not just only the legacy parties that are involved. You have people from APGA, from DPP who are interested too and are now also put into consideration, so when we get the final list it will be one that reflects the heterogeneity of our nation.”
Meanwhile, CPC has said that the Peoples’ Democratic Party cannot stop governors who have indicated interest in joining the APC from doing so.
The party described the witch-hunting of some PDP governors for plotting to defect to the APC as ridiculous.