Atiku, Tinubu in race for APC BoT chair

Members of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) are already forming queues behind former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, ahead of tomorrow’s meeting of the Board of Trustees (BoT), Daily Trust on Sunday learnt yesterday.
Sources said the BoT meeting, scheduled to hold at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja, would be used to elect both the chairman and secretary of the Board, which is an advisory body of elders and leaders considered as the conscience of the party.

A  leader of the APC in Abia State and former National Chairman of the Progressives Peoples Alliance (PPA), Chief Sam Nkire, had already declared his interest to become the secretary of the party’s BoT.

The latest development is an indication that the first interim National Chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, may no longer be in the APC BoT chairmanship contest.
The APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, confirmed tomorrow’s meeting last Monday after resuming from a 10-day working break.
After the emergence of the BoT chairman, a meeting of the party’s national caucus will follow on Tuesday, March 22, 2016.
Chief Odigie-Oyegun said the meeting of the APC National Executive Committee (NEC), which is the party’s highest decision making organ, will hold on Thursday, March 24, 2016.
Daily Trust on Sunday learnt that the need to fill vacant positions in the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) would be ratified at the NEC meeting.
The APC national chairman, who spoke with journalists at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja, had said that all arrangements had been concluded to conduct congresses through which a substantive national publicity secretary to succeed Alhaji Lai Mohammed would emerge.

CCT trial: How APC leaders bungled Aso Rock meeting meant to decide Saraki’s fate

Indications have emerged into how top hierarchy of the All Progressives Congress, APC, bungled a stakeholders meeting held in Aso Rock about a fortnight ago to decide the fate of the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, in view of his ongoing trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT.

Nigerian Tribune is reporting that while Saraki’s matter was billed for discussion at the meeting presided over by Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, some leaders, who were in attendance and were against having the matter resolved by the party, sent out messages to some media outfits, claiming that Saraki was going to the Villa to beg APC leaders.

A source privy to the development was reported by the newspaper as saying that the messages sent to some journalists practically took the wind out of the sail of the meeting which majorly resulted in the failure to reach any concrete conclusion. It was also said that the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari at the meeting did not help matters

The report has it that while a number of party bigwigs pleaded for caution in the handling of the Saraki matter in order not to cause an early implosion in the party, some insisted that the Senate President should be allowed to carry his cross, while others were of the view that the ongoing trial could speak negatively about the party.

A source was reported as saying: “The party is largely divided on the Saraki issue and I can tell you this is affecting things down the line. It is affecting the way senators of the APC are also reacting to things. The Villa meeting was set up to ensure that the party could extract some commitments from Saraki and find a political solution to the issues at stake, but those opposed to a resolution apparently moved fast.

“They started sending messages to some media to indicate that Saraki was going to the Villa to be the APC even before the Senate President left the National Assembly. He got to the Villa late, but even before he left the chamber, his office had been bombarded by questions from several media. The meeting could not come to a concrete solution that day because of the antics of the leaders, who leaked the meeting, even though the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari also contributed to the meeting’s failure.”

Daily Post