Parallel congresses may affect APC fortunes – Akande

A former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, said yesterday that the prevalence of parallel congresses by members of the ruling party has the capacity to affect its fortunes in the forthcoming general elections.

Akande, a former governor of Osun State, made the remark in Ilorin, Kwara State, shortly after the launch of a 640-page autobiography of a former leader of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Chief Wole Oke, titled ‘Omopeninun, The Myth, The Reality’.

Asked for his thought on the frictions in the party arising from the congresses, Akande said, “I think the National Executive Committee of the party is going to sort it depending on the circumstances in each state.

“They ought not to have happened but I don’t know why they happened. Now that they have happened it is the duty of the National Executive Council to look at them and say this one is genuine or the other one is a parallel congress,” he said.

And when prodded on the possible effects of the development on the fortunes of the APC, he said: “Crisis will definitely affect the fortunes of any party, but it is the duty of the party that it controls it.”

He however agreed that the National Working Committee of the party was up to the task of tackling the challenges that will arise from the several parallel congresses that took place over the weekend, saying he expected that the committee will look at each claim dispassionately and judge them based on their genuineness or otherwise.