...Agitations in North Central over micro-zoning
There is disquiet in the South East chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) over an alleged ‘unity list’ ahead of the national convention of the party, insider sources confirmed the development to Daily Trust.
The idea of a unity list, it was gathered, was informed by last week’s meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and APC governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The unity list, it was gathered, was akin to the one floated by the PDP during its convention, last year, which was essentially mooted and endorsed by the party’s stakeholders.
Daily Trust reports that all those that appeared in PDP’s unity list last year ultimately won during the elections held at the Eagle Square in Abuja.
One of the sources in APC, however, said pockets of power brokers had emerged to ensure who got what from the South East zone during Saturday’s national convention.
Apart from the position of deputy women leader which had been zoned to Abia State, other important positions for the South East included a slot in the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC, including the national organising secretary, national auditor and national vice chairman (South East).
To realise the ambition, a source said the South East zone convened a meeting at the Ladi Kwali Hall, in Abuja, recently, where a former Abia State governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, announced a unanimous decision There is agitation as APC stakeholders from the North Central have allegedly concluded plans to meet tomorrow, to micro-zone offices allotted to the zone ahead of the party’s June 23 national convention.
Credible sources in the party hinted Daily Trust, yesterday, that the leaders were looking for competent to return Senator Osita Izunaso, Chief George Moghalu and Chief Emma Eneukwu as national organising secretary, national auditor and national vice chairman, respectively.
However, another source present at the Abuja meeting dismissed the said endorsement, adding that the meeting itself was stormy and poorly attended by APC chieftains from the South East. He said the option of endorsement had created dissention among the attendees.
“For instance, former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, who attended the meeting left midway. He did not know the agenda of the meeting before coming and when he knew what they were up to, he left. He is not in support of the decision to adopt anybody.
“Rochas Okorocha is the only APC governor in the South East for now. Whether you like him or not, there is no way you can hold such an important meeting without his knowledge and you expect the decision from such meeting to be binding. Go and find out the details of what happened at the meeting,” the source said.
The source added: “Many people believed that such an important meeting should have taken place at the zonal headquarters in Enugu. Rather; the said meeting was hurriedly put together, which informed the poor attendance of party stakeholders from the South-east.
“They discovered that if the states were allowed to decide the fate of the NWC members, none of them will come back. That is why they rushed that endorsement on the argument that the NWC positions were not state, but national positions,” he said. and credible hands that would help President Muhammadu Buhari to retain power in the 2019 general elections considering that the governors would not do it alone.
It was learnt that while some stakeholders from Kogi State were asking to fill the office of national publicity secretary, others from Kwara were asking to fill that of women leader.
An APC chieftain in Kogi State said a high-ranking politician in the state had launched a campaign for the women leader to come from the state but that stakeholders were likely to zone the position to Kwara to favour Senator Gbemi Saraki for the office.
He said four party chieftains were already gunning for the office of spokesman - two from Kwara and two from Kogi.
However, a former Member of the House of Representatives and a veteran journalist, Hon. Duro Meseko, who is contesting the office of national publicity secretary, said it is better for the zone to allow Kogi to take the position of spokesman.
Some stakeholders argued that the position of national publicity secretary of the party should be zoned to Kogi on the grounds that the present one, Bolaji Abdullahi and his predecessor, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, all came from Kwara.