A group within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Concerned APC Stakeholders Forum (CASF), has implored President Muhammadu Buhari and the chairman of National Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the party, Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State, to listen to ignore the suggestion by former Abia State governor, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, to extend the committee’s tenure beyond February.
The group, in a statement issued by its cational coordinator, Mallam Zakari Misau and publicity secretary, James Ayoola in Abuja on yesterday said the suggestion is a dangerous one that is capable of throwing the APC and, by extension, the country into turmoil if accepted by the committee.
Kalu had in a widely publicised letter to President Muhammadu Buhari called for an extension if the caretaker committee’s tenure, saying it’s (the committee’s) assignment, apart from midwifing a new national leadership, to also conduct the presidential primaries of the party.
Reacting to the call, the group expressed dismay at the call, which they claim is inimical to the Progressives and success of the party as the forthcoming general elections inches closer.
The statement reads: “We read with dismay in many news media the call and suggestion by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu for an extension of the tenure of the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led committee. To us, there seems to be a lot of mischief in the call which in our considered opinion will not do the party any good as we move towards the forthcoming general elections.”
Pointing out the dangers inherent in the call, CASF said, “It amounts to a deliberate attempt to lay landmines on the path of the success of the APC considering the fact that the interim committee itself is battling with legal issues bordering on its legality. It is also a ploy to put the integrity of our amiable President into disrepute”.
While expressing satisfaction with the job done by he Buni-led committee in midwifing congresses from the ward to the state levels, the group stated that what is needs to be done now was for the committee to conclude its assignment by putting in place a National Executive Council as well as the National Working Committee of the party.
According to the group, doing anything in the contrary would amount to a breach of trust just as it is capable of throwing the party into an unimaginable crisis, which it might not recover from ahead of the forthcoming poll.
