APC groups urge Buhari to reconsider stance on Oyegun, others

A coalition of APC support groups has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to reconsider his stance on tenure elongation for the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party led by Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.

Chief Oyegun and the NWC members of the party were expected to vacate office on June 30. The same was applicable to party officials at the state, local and ward levels, but their tenures were collectively extended by one year by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.

Citing legal advice, President Buhari, last month, distanced himself from the tenure elongation and instead advised that the party should do the needful by respecting the letters of its constitution.

The groups told yesterday in Abuja that newsmen they had watched the developments that followed the fifth National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting and the sudden stance of President Buhari.

The leaders of the coalition include the Convener, APC Youth Solidarity Network (APC-YSN), Prince Danisi Momoh; Coordinator, Grassroots Mobilisation for Buhari/ Osinbajo 2019 (CGMBO), Comrade Japhet Echegwo; South South Youth Movement for Change (SSYMC), Comrade Kede Michael; Director General, Buhari Supporters for Change (BSC), Ambassador Tega Okokoyoko; and APC North Central Buhari/Osinbajo Support Group, Ibrahim Yusman.

Others are Oduduwa for Change Movement (OCM), Lanre Jimiloyi, APC Ambassadors for Continuity (APC-AC), Dipreye Victor; Director General, APC Advocacy for Transparency and Good Governance, Comrade Champion Eyigie; and Chairperson, Women for Change Network (WCN), Mrs. Elizabeth Omokoro.

“We are of the firm position that although the president is entitled to take a personal position as a member of NEC, the president’s decision is ill-advised and politically counterproductive,” the leaders said in their position paper.

“Following NEC’s decision to set up a technical committee to advise the party on the president’s decision, we call on the committee to note the logistical and political exigencies that informed NEC’s decision to extend the tenure of party executives by 12 months,” they said. They, therefore, urged President Buhari to critically look at the issues and prevent further crisis by not pleasing any powerful individual or group that might want to hijack the party’s hierarchy.