Latest

Leadership crisis: APC vows to go ahead with convention despite INEC’s opposition

Published

4 years ago

March 12, 2022

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that it has not fallen short of the law in anyway with regards to the letter it sent to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to monitor its forthcoming National Convention.

Mr Ismail Ahmed, the National Youth Leader in the APC Caretaker and Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), said this at the weekend in Abuja while speaking with newsmen.

The APC National Convention has been slated for March 26 to elect new national executives to manage the party’s affairs, which is presently being managed by its CECPC.

The INEC in a letter had rejected an invitation to an emergency meeting of the APC National Executive Committee (NEC) ahead of its national convention.

“APC national convention would hold on March 26. I’m not only a youth leader, I’m also a lawyer. And we have served a notice to INEC for the 26th of February earlier.

“We served that notice on Feb. 5 and that was the required 21 days. If you are going to make any adjustment to that date all you need is a letter making an adjustment to the date.

“You don’t need another 21 days and that letter was written about two weeks ago, when we realised that we couldn’t hold it on Feb. 26.

“The moment, the CECPC agreed on March 26 as date for the national convention, that letter was written to INEC. INEC has accepted that letter. So that is long gone; is not an issue,” he explained.

He maintained that the March 26 date for the party’s national convention was not an issue, saying that the date is settled and sacrosanct.

On the current position of Gov. Mai Mala Buni, Ahmed said he was only on medical leave and would resume soon, wondering why it was difficult for some individuals to believe that.

He explained that since the inauguration of the CECPC in June 25, 2020, Gov. Abubakar Bello of Niger had always acted whenever Buni was absent.