Oyegun to Meet APC State Chairmen over Board Appointments

The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun will be meeting with the chairmen of the state chapters of the party on Thursday to iron out issues relating to the recently released list of appointees to the boards of federal government parastatals.

President Muhammadu Buhari had on the eve of New Year approved the appointment of 209 chairmen and 1,258 members to the boards of federal agencies and parastatals.

However, following the discovery of the names of eight dead persons on the list and the subsequent criticism it attracted, the president was forced to order review of the entire exercise to correct the anomaly.

Senior Special Assistant to the President, Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, who confirmed the review, said the entire list was being scrutinised all over again by a committee constituted by the president.

“They have gone very far and they will be reporting to the president very soon,” he said.

But Oyegun told THISDAY at the weekend that he had summoned the chairmen to meet with him on Thursday in Abuja, in line with the directive given by the president for a review of the list of the board appointments.

He said the consultation with state chairmen was necessary in view of the fact that their input might be needed to effect changes to the original list submitted to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

Speaking during a dinner with journalists at his residence in Abuja on SAturday, Oyegun had said that though the party participated in drawing up the initial list of appointees, it was not consulted before the final list was sent to the president for approval.

“We asked every state to submit 50 nominations which were sent to the committee in charge of the list. They completed the initial exercise at that time but since then a lot has happened.

“People have changed parties, people have died, we have three new governors that were not there when the list was compiled,” he said.

The departed persons included on the list were Senator Francis Okpozo, who passed on at 81 in 2016, he was named chairman, Nigerian Press Council (NPC); Deputy Inspector General of Police and elder statesman, Donald Ugbaja (rtd.), who was appointed member of the Consumer Protection Council; and the founder of Fidei Polytechnic, Rev. Fr. Christopher Utov, who was appointed a member of the board of the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research.

Utov was until his death last year, the proprietor of Fidei Polytechnic in Gboko, Benue State, the first private polytechnic in northern Nigeria. He died on March 17, 2017 in India after battling with an undisclosed disease and was buried on April 13, 2017 in Gboko.

Others included the late Alhaji Umar Dange Sokoto, former Emir of Katagum in Bauchi State, who died on December 9, 2017, but was picked to join the board of the Federal Medical Centre, Azare, also in Bauchi; Mr. Garba Attahiru from Kaduna State; Dr. Nabbs Igbokwe from Rivers State; Mr. Ahmed Bunza from Kebbi State; and Miss Magdalene Kumu from Taraba State.