APC governors align with Buhari, say no tenure extension for Oyegun

Governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have resolved to abide by the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari not to extend the tenure of the party’s national working committee led by John Oyegun.

An initial meeting to discuss the matter on Tuesday ended in a deadlock.

On Wednesday, five governors met with the president and agreed to hold ward congresses and a national convention.

The governors are Abdulazeez Yari (Zamfara) Simon Lalong (Plateau), Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano) and Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun).

Speaking on their behalf, Yari told state house correspondents that all the governors are on “the same page with Mr. President”.

According to him, they have collectively agreed that the party’s congress will hold at all levels.

“Gentlemen of the press, you know yesterday we left you in the dark after the meeting and today we have seen so many captions that there is disagreement between the governors over the issue of party chairman or about the party leadership,” Yari said.

“No. We had a meeting with Mr President yesterday (Tuesday), and we extended the meeting tonight and we followed up with the consultations with the president now.

“We consulted and all the 24 governors of the APC are on the same page with Mr President that we are going to respect our party constitution, we are going to respect the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So therefore, we collectively agreed that we will have congresses at all levels – local, state and national.

“And the committee set up by the national secretariat of our party headed by governor of Plateau state, is presenting its report later today. The governors are also meeting with the working committee today so that we come up with convention committee names as well as timetable of the election.

“So, there is no deadlock in our meeting, we have progressed and very soon you will have the names of the convention committee members as well as the timetable.”

Also speaking, Okorocha said they had fine-tuned issues with the president. He said the agreement to hold the congress does not mean the present leadership performed badly.

“I just want to let you know that there is no crisis in the APC at all. There is no single crisis in APC,” Okorocha said.

“The issue was one of people who believe that we did not have enough time to organise a party congress and run an election. Some people felt that it was a good idea but the most important thing is that, if we do that we will be contravening both our party constitution and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“To this effect, the convention committee will be set out, it will be announced.

“But let me correct one impression, the issue of congress and convention does not mean that the previous people who have served the party have done badly. And it does not mean that they cannot come back or that they cannot re-contest, that is not it.

“We are simply saying that their tenure has ended and those who wish to re-contest can re-contest and can be elected to our party structure. So we are all one as a family and we are set to go for 2019 elections in victory.”