From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
An All Progressives Congress (APC) group, under the auspices of the Progressive Mandate Movement, has issued January ultimatum to the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) to release the schedule for the national convention or it would make the secretariat ungovernable.
It also urged the party to make the February national convention date sacrosanct and insisted on the immediate release of processes leading to the national convention by January 5, 2022.
In a statement in Abuja, yesterday, and signed by its National Coordinator, Abdullahi Mohammed, and Secretary, Adekunle Fijabi, the group said it would launch operation #OccupyAPCNationalSecretariat to force the party’s leaders to do the right thing.
The group claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari had wanted the APC national convention to hold in December 2021 but due to appeal by the Buni’s CECPC, the presidency conceded to February 2022.
While claiming to be a foundational group of APC, PMM urged the CECPC not to prolong the date a day beyond February 5.
“For some of our current leaders who were there during the merger process that led to formation of APC, this organisation has always been in the forefront of upholding the progressive ideology of our party and we will not stop at this critical period.
“The delay in conducting the overdue APC national convention is already giving the opposition Peoples Democratic Party some advantages, making it look like nobody is in charge of the governing party.
“We, therefore, call on Governor Mai Mala Buni-led national caretaker committee not to go beyond February 5 to hold our party’s national convention. This group is in possession of the instructions given to the caretaker committee by the presidency and we appeal to the CECPC to respect our leader and President Buhari by releasing to the public all the necessary information concerning the forthcoming national convention.
“We also warn that if nothing is made public before January 5, 2022, we shall launch an aggressive operation #OCCUPYAPCNATIONALSECRETARIAT to force our leaders to do the right thing.
“We made bold to say we do not have another party and we will not allow our leaders to make mistake that will eventually cause us to lose elections in 2023,” the group said.