APC NEC, Caucus Meetings Not for Regime Change, Says Party’s Scribe

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ajibola Basiru, has said that the Caucus and National Executive Committee (NEC) meetings scheduled for September 11 and 12 are not aimed at changing the leadership of the party.
Bashir disclosed this yesterday in Abuja during a courtesy visit by Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State.

His words: “None of these activities of the party is elective meeting. The National Caucus is established under Article 11 of the Constitution of our party as well as the NEC. They are part of routine meetings that our party should be having on a regular basis.
“But people like to twist events. Immediately we put up notice when the President told us about his availability, we read in the papers that the meetings (Caucus and NEC) are about changing the leadership of our party.

“None of these meetings are being scheduled for regime change in the party. It is being held to give stewardship of what has been done by the leadership of Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje in terms of also presenting our audit report to show what we have been doing as well as the way forward.
“This is very important to put in the public domain. We want to thank His Excellency, Governor of Nasarawa State for dropping by to see us in our house. We will be happy to continue receiving you and give you support.”

Also, the National Chairman of the party expressed delight while  receiving Sule at the party’s secretariat.
According to him, “We want our party to be a strong institution that will back the government and ensure an internal democracy. The essence of the Progressive Institute we established is to give our party an identity.”

On his part, Sule said he was at the party’s secretariat to pay his respect to Ganduje.
He stated: “I’m a governor that this same National Working Committee worked very hard to ensure that I continue as a governor. They were there with me during the elections, they were there with me during the legal matters, they did not rest until I got my own victory. So, this is my house.
“And as it is my house, I think I have the right to go in any time that I feel comfortable to come to my house and that’s why I am here.

“I am here also to pay my respect to a man that deserves respect, to our national chairman, Dr. Ganduje. He deserves respect and deserves all the cooperation especially at a time like this.”

Sule noted that as the party prepares for the forthcoming Edo governorship election, the national chairman does not need any distraction.

He added: “In the next couple of weeks, we have an election in Edo. So the man does not need to be distracted in any other way so that we can go and win our election in Edo and that is one of the reasons why I came to encourage him to be focused.

“In reality we have issues here and there. One of the places we have issues is North-central. I am the chairman of the North-Central Governors Forum. And in the North-central, we have a state where there are issues and we had lengthened discussions also on that. We want him as well as the National Working Committee to intervene and make sure that we resolve those issues.

“North-central has five out of six APC governors. So for that reason, we need to strengthen our zone. We cannot afford any kind of disagreement in our zone. And I have no doubt that if there is any gentleman that can work to resolve that matter, it’s a man who has been in several positions. A deputy governor, a governor, a chairman, in fact so many other positions that he has been.

“So for that reason I came to pay my respect to the Father of the party at the Working Committee and to our leader. “