BUHARI MOVES TO AVERT MASS DEFECTIONS FROM APC

•  To meet Oshiomhole, aggrieved govs in 48 hours
•   Presidential panel on primaries frowns at handling
•   Security reports indicate more governors set to follow Benue, Kwara, Sokoto example
•   Plot against party Chairman thickens
Ahead of Tuesday when top leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) meet to look at their final list of candidates for the 2019 elections with a view to using the last window for substitution, President Muhammadu Buhari has moved to avert possible defections from the party arising from the crisis generated by the primaries.

Political parties fielding candidates for the forthcoming polls have up till Thursday to make substitution of candidates in the list submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The primaries of the ruling party at the federal level to select its candidates for the polls had been marred by controversy in many states across the country with the problem pronounced in Ogun, Adamawa, Bauchi, Jigawa, Imo, Ondo, Kebbi and Kano states.

The situation invariably pitted the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC, led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, against some governors who complained that the party leadership pandered to the wish of some stakeholders in some states where governorship candidates emerged in controversial circumstances.

In response to the problem, Buhari set up a five-man team to investigate and suggest the way out. In the committee, Sunday Vanguard learnt at the weekend, were the Minister of Education, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, and the Chief of Staff in the Presidency.

The committee was said to have submitted its report and is likely to be considered at the meeting on Tuesday, 48 hours to the substitution window for candidates in the 2019 elections at INEC.

A source close to the APC, yesterday, said the committee particularly looked at the situation in Ogun State chapter of the party where crisis arose after the leadership adopted the candidature of Prince Dapo Abiodun for the governorship race whereas evidence scooped by the committee pointed to only one primary in the state which produced Hon. Adekunle Akinlade.

Governor Ibikunle Amosun has repeatedly made a case for the adoption of the candidate that emerged through what he called a valid process – but which was conducted by the state chapter and not the NWC.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that the presidential committee found that the fact that the candidates supported by Amosun in the APC primaries in Ogun for the national and state assemblies’ elections emerged winners was a pointer that the governorship candidate that emerged from the same process ought to have been adopted by the party’s national leadership.

In addition, the Presidency was said to have discovered that the Ogun governor remained one of the surest leaders in the South-West to deliver their states to the APC in the 2019 polls and it will be a mistake to allow him to be lukewarm on the grounds of his grievance with the governorship primary in the state.

“Our party lost three governors only recently. We must be careful that we do not reach the five governors’ mark that the PDP lost and cost it the presidency in 2015. There are security reports indicating that Governors Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara) and Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo) may leave APC and Amosun’s people’s lukewarm attitude may injure the party’s chances”, a source close to the APC leadership said.

“Security reports also show that some other aggrieved governors by the outcome of the primaries in their states like those of Adamawa, Bauchi, Jigawa and Kebbi   may be linking up with the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because of previous relationship with him.

“But the President is determined to use the opportunity of the Tuesday meeting of leaders of the ruling party to intervene in all the states with lingering problems relying on security reports and findings of the five-man panel”.

Credits: Vanguard