From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) has disclosed that it has adopted the much-awaited zoning formula to be used by the party ahead of its national convention scheduled for March 26.
APC Caretaker Committee acting Chairman, Governor Sani Bello, who made the disclosure after the meeting held at the secretariat on Tuesday, also confirmed that the National Executive Committee (NEC) will hold a virtual emergency meeting next week.
Governor Bello, who explained the agenda deliberated at the meeting of the CECPC on Tuesday, said that it was a continuation of their inaugural meeting held on Monday at the secretariat.
“The meeting today is a continuation of yesterday’s own. And just know you are not going to be asking me same thing tomorrow because we are going to be meeting everyday until convention so that we can put things together.
“Basically, today we look at the convention sub-committee and we collected some of the reports from the committee hoping that tomorrow we will decide on the next step to take. Nothing much happen today,” he noted.
On update on the report of the zoning formula, he said: “it has been submitted and adopted and it will be release any moment from now. I mean the zoning formula. Hopefully, by next week, the virtual NEC meeting will hold,” he said.
Asked confirm the speculated resignation of the Caretaker Committee secretary, Akpanudoedehe, Governor Bello, joked that the question should be directed to him.
Meanwhile, Akpanudoedehe has dismissed the speculation that he has resigned, insisting that only Preaident Muhammadu Buhari can demand his resignation and that of the party chairman, Governor Mai Mala Buni.
He also denied getting any directive from the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) compelling him to resign, reieterating that he is not above the party buy only President Buhari can force him to reign.
Reacting to the resignation, the party’s chief scribe said: “I have read in social media that I have resigned as Secretary of the APC. I want to state that it is not true, I didn’t resign. If I have resign, you would have seen my letter of resignation written by me. Someone cannot just say somebody is dead when he is alive.
“I am not bigger than the party, or bigger than the president who is a leader of the country. I waiting for my national chairman to come back. I am waiting for the party Chairman. If we have directive from the president that we should resign, we are not bigger than the president, we will do so, if we hear from him,” he said.
Coming close to claiming that he was forced to resigned, he said: “Somebody cannot say go and announce he is resigning. Like MKO Abiola used to say, you don’t shave someone’s head in his absence. So, we have done so much.
“Someone cannot say the president said. I have not receive any letter from anywhere. As I said, nobody is bigger than the party. The issue is, have I resigned and the answer is no. I am still the national secretary of the party,” he insisted.
Itemising their stewardship since assumption of office, he said: “We have done so much for this party. When we inherited this party, if you can recall, it was in its lowest ebb. We build the party and recover a lot of grounds. We were able to register 41 million members. And we bought this secretariat of the party.
“We have been able to recover what we lost. We lost and brought in a lot of governors. All the States we lost, we brought in two weeks. We have been able to go round this country and the Constitution and that which was a difficult thing to do, we have done it in less than one year.
“We have done reconciliation, ward, Local Governments and state congresses. And we are about to do the national convention. This is not the first time you are seeing power play.
“And you will agree with me that when we came in, this place was like a dead zone. The secretariat was moved to a private home. But we were committed to what we were doing. I am stating here that that breaking news is not from me. I don’t know who announced it.
“Our relationship is very cordial. I don’t have any load anybodyis claiming that I have parked already. I come here and I leave. I have never changed my furniture. The photograph is official. I have not packed anything. I have not received any letter.
Interestingly, there was mixed reactions among the secretariat staff when the speculation about Akpanudoedehe’s resignation filtered into the Buhari House.
While very insignificant few celebrated the speculated resignation, the greater number of them remained moody, desiring that it never happened.