2nd March, 2022
By Emmanuel Oloniruha
The All Progressive Congress (APC) Action Group has cautioned the party leadership against shifting the March 26 National Convention of the party to another date.
This is contained in a statement issued by Mr Bisi Olanipekun, the group Publicity Secretary on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to him, shifting the convention further may affect the fortunes of the party.
He said the advice was imperative going by the assertion by the Chairman of the Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, in the wake of presidential assent to the Electoral Act.
Yakubu had said, “the Electoral Act provides strict timelines for the implementation of electoral activities based on the date of the General Election.”
“It means that the activities of political parties, to the extent that they are part of the 2023 General Elections, are no longer a matter for a cabal or cartel to decide.
“Political parties must now either abide by the law or lose out completely.
“It is instructive that the amended Electoral Act the INEC Chairman is relying on is the product of a National Assembly that has APC in the majority and assented to by an APC executive.”
However, he added that shifting the party’s convention would contravene the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.
Olanipekun said that it would also be a breach of the Electoral Law because any political party that wanted to hold a convention or congress must give at least 30 days’ notice to INEC.
“The APC Action Group wants to reiterate its earlier position that with the new timetable released by INEC, we demand unequivocally that the presidential primaries be held on the same date with our national convention.
“Our reason for this is the need to save money for the party and to shield party members from expending so many resources to travel twice for events that could have been collapsed into one; this is in addition to the security challenges associated with road travel.
“In addition to the above, holding the national convention and presidential primary on the same day will stave off the potential for disgruntled persons to frivolously jump ship only to again return to the party after the general elections.
“If we are truly committed to APC’s victory at the General Elections we will ensure to deploy the kind of strategy that will make good things happen for the party,” he said.
NAN