…Says party consulting stakeholders, working on consensus candidates.
..Party chairman gets vote of confidence from NWC members
National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Adamu, has declared that the ruling party is not in any hurry to announce the zoning arrangement of the leadership of the 10th National Assembly.
Adamu dropped the hint in a chat with newsmen after presiding over the much-publicised emergency National Working Committee (NWC) that lasted for four hours at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday.
He hinged the delay in deliberating on the zoning arrangement on wide consultation with all the relevant stakeholders, urging Nigerians to exercise more patience as the party is working on consensus candidates.
The former governor of Nasarawa state also announced that the leadership crisis rocking the ruling party has been resolved, adding: “The outcome of our four-hour meeting is that we came out a more formidable and united party than anything.”
Asked if the NWC discussed the controversial issue about zoning, Adamu said: “That is not what today’s meeting is all about. When we will do the zoning meeting, we will not just go alone as a party. Zoning involves taking along the person who has the mandate of this country, the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, we want to take him along. He travelled after the election and he came back only last week and we have to carry him along.
“We cannot stop those who are ambitious or zoning interest, or individual interest, we cannot deny them and as long as that is there, we have to find a way, persuasively of reaching some level of consensus. That’s is what we are working on. It is not a one-day affair,” Adamu noted.
Corroborating the stand of the National Chairman on the delay in resolving zoning, National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, also told newsmen that; “We are not wasting time over zoning. There is no timeline to do so. The zoning is something that the party does.
“It is a mechanism by which the party is able to make decisions and afford those who are interested in competing for power in the leadership of the 10th National Assembly to do so with a minimum rift and rancour to do so peacefully and seamlessly. So, there is no timeline to that. We are not in hurry. We want to do it right.
“The chairman said this required very exhaustive consultation not just of the leadership of the party but also of those who are aspiring so that whatever the party comes up with, by way of formula will be acceptable with minimum friction. It is important that the consultation is done and it is done properly. That is what is going on right now,” he noted.
Announcing that Adamu got vote of confidence from members despite the allegations against him, Morka said that; “among all of the issues discussed at the meeting, we look at some internal and domestic house keeping matters with a colleague, who has expressed his concerns about something he believes the party should be doing. We deliberated completely about it.
“But, I am happy to report, as the Chairman just indicated, that the party stands completely united behind the leadership of the National Chairman of our party, Abdullahi Adamu. And we are all standing together. Our colleague who has concern, is being looked into. And I think in due course, we will have very specific conclusions of those discussions,” he assured.
Meanwhile, the committee constituted to resolve the face-off between the North-West zonal chairman, Lukman, and the headship of the party, has confirmed an unconditional withdrawal of the court case instituted against the party.
Speaking on behalf of members of the ad-hoc reconciliation committee, comprising all the zonal Vice Chairmen of the party, National Publicity Secretary and the Deputy National Organising Secretary, set up to look into the face-off, Comrade Salihu Mustapha, said that Lukman has apologised for his actions.
Addressing newsmen, Mustapha, National Vice Chairman, North East, said: “We had intimate consultations with our brother, Comrade Lukman on issues you are aware of, like the legal action and some other publications credited to him and we have reached the resolution that this suit is going to be withdrawn and unconditionally. He has tendered his apology for any seeming embarrassment his suit and publications may have caused.
“We want to affirm the fact that we are one indivisible committee that we would continue to work together and also try to see that we achieve all the inspiration of the ideal working committee or ideal party. We will resolve through the instrumentality of the party because parties are not run on the pages of newspapers, nor on the screens of television, but administratively and we will continue to do that as one house,” he announced.
“We also want to reiterate the fact that this party will not condone indiscipline where one or two people of one organ that is not qualified will just sit and said they have suspended or expelled one of our members. A case study is what happened in the South-south.
“This party will not tolerate it and we are looking into and investigating the matter. We will ensure that we bring to book individuals or organs that brought this kind of irregularities without following our constitution,” he warned.
PREMIUM TIMES
