The last is yet to be heard on the internal crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) over its convention. There are indications that some key stakeholders of the are working to guarantee the sanctity of the February 2022 date for the Party’s convention by mobilising their colleagues across the six geopolitical zones for sustained pressure on the national leadership of the party.
Arrangements for the one-month-long phased programme of action, the sources said on Monday, are said to be the brainchild of two influential groups in the APC, to stave off alleged plans by some forces not favourably disposed to February as the date for the convention to elect substantive national officers.
The organisers are said to have fixed January 11 as a tentative date for a “large gathering in Abuja of the APC main stakeholders from zones, to interrogate issues concerning the convention, national chairmanship contest and other issues relating to the party and the 2023 general election.”
While crisis persists in some state chapters of the party, some groups have warned the interim national leadership against changing the proposed date for the convention, which was announced after its approval by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Some sources privy to the ongoing mobilisation to pressure the APC top echelon and other major critical stakeholders, including governors elected on the platform of the party, said those behind the drive stepped up, in the past few days, preparations for the all-inclusive summit scheduled for the Shehu Yar’Adua Conference Centre, Abuja.
The sources said the organisers made enquiries from other party chieftains on the contacts of prominent APC leaders proposed to interrogate issues relating to the APC, especially the proposed convention.
One of the individuals said to be on the card as a speaker is the Director-General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, the platform for APC, Dr Salihu Lukman, who recently called on party faithful to ignore the report credited to Senator Orji Uzor Kalu on the need to postpone the convention to enable the party to resolve the crisis bedeviling it in many states.
Only recently, the APC leadership unveiled a plan to set up subcommittees for the convention, a development some party buffs described as cheering.
It was learnt that part of the plans of those behind the January 11 gathering includes rallies, lectures and other mass events that will dovetail possibly into the convention proper.