The All Progressives Congress Grassroots Youths for Change has commenced a search for a consensus candidate for the party’s National Chairman.
Last week, President Muhammaadu Buhari urged the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) not to extend the tenure of the National Working Committee (NWC), led by Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.
The president said the extension would run foul of the country and the party’s constitution.
Thereafter, the NWC promised to empanel a small committee that would consider the president’s observations and advise the party appropriately.
This prompted the APC Grassroots Youths for Change to launch a search for a new national chairman for the party.
The group has, however, narrowed its search to Cross River State, in the South South geo-political zone.
One of those being considered is former governor of Cross River, Mr. Clement Ebri.
Ebri was governor of Cross River state on the platform of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) from 1992 to 1993.
In 1999, he contested the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) primaries for the state governorship ticket and came second in the exercise. He left the ANPP in 2006.
He joined the Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA) and became the national chairman from 2008 to 2009 when he resigned, after the former PPA governor in Imo state, Ikedi Ohakim, defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Ebri is a chieftain of the APC in Cross River state.
It was also gathered that some individuals are also being considered, “but, that at the end of the day, what would determine who gets the nod will be a combination of his political antecedents and the final say of president Buhari…” according to the group’s National Coordinator, Mr. Orlu Henry Manuchimso.
Manuchimso commended the president for his critical intervention.
“While I am concerned at the timing of the forthcoming national convention, whose outcome can polarise the party rather than unite it ahead of 2019 general elections, I am, however, on the same page with the president on the illegality of the tenure extension by the NEC,” he said.