APC’s NEC backs rejection of Odigie-Oyegun’s tenure extension

Endorses Buhari for second term
Ahead of today’s meeting, members of the National Working Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have withdrawn their initial support for the tenure extension of John Odigie-Oyegun.

The chieftains, who are non-members of the National Working Committee (NWC) declared support for President Buhammadu’s Buhari’s rejection of the elongation.

The Forum of Non-National Working Committee disclosed this at a press briefing yesterday in Abuja.

Its spokesperson, Mr. Jock Alamba, expressed support for Buhari’s position, and described the tenure extension of the party executives as illegal and unconstitutional.

The forum had earlier expressed support for the Odigie-Oyegun-led NWC and asked that it be extended for another 12 months.

In its new position, the forum said: “It shares in Mr. President’s unalloyed commitment to the rule of law and fine tenets of internal democracy, as well as the firm beacon that he is laying to deepen the country’s fledging democracy.

“He has at different fora, as a converted democrat, demonstrated commitment to democracy as exemplified in the gubernatorial and senatorial elections, which allowed opposition parties to win elections in Anambra and Rivers states.”

The forum added that this disposition differs from the mid-term and other elections’ results “under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in its 16 years of do-or-die politics.”

It added that the APC could not underrate the president’s concern that the law is an ass, which should not be toyed with in the face of the party’s likely victory in the 2019 presidential polls.

It called on all APC members and supporters nationwide to disregard “a news headline in one of the national newspapers titled: ‘Governors move to stop plot to use chairmen against Buhari.’

The forum denied that there was any such plot, adding that no chairman was against Buhari in any way.

“It is a common position that Buhari should be allowed to complete the critical infrastructural foundation that he has laid in the overall interest of the country.

“Accordingly, our forum has the fervent belief that the APC, as in the December 10, 2014 presidential and other primaries, would work together as a family to disappoint naysayers who are wishing an Armageddon,” it added.

The forum reaffirmed that a careful survey showed that 99 per cent of the entire membership and governors of the APC are in support of the president’s second term bid.