The All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee has revealed that it has concluded plans to invoke the Convention Order given to it to extend its tenure in office when it expires in the month of June this year.
A committee source revealed to Daily Sun, that as the custodian of the power of the National Executive Committee (NEC) and power of Convention, the Caretaker Committee can meet at any time and extend its tenure after consultation with President Muhammadu Buhari and other major stakeholders.
The source disclosed that after the dissolution of the organs that constitute the party’s NEC, the Caretaker Committee would have legal powers to decide its future and the mode of convention to elect the national leadership of the party. The source however contended that with the rigours of sorting out the data involving 30 million registered members, the duration for the display of register for verifications, the conduct of ward and state congresses before the national convention, it will be practically impossible not to extend the tenure of the Caretaker Committee beyond the stipulated six month duration.
While revealing that the committee will meet to extend its tenure once the membership registration exercise is concluded, the source assured party members that it will lay a solid foundation to recapture all the states the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took from the ruling party in the 2019 elections.
The source also revealed that ahead of the 2023 general elections, the APC will weaken the PDP by ensuring that three of its governors joining the ruling party, stating that it would be extremely difficult for the opposition to put up a fight left with only five governors.
The dissolution of NEC means that it has surrendered all its powers; consequently, the Committee does not need to go back to it to derive powers again. That conferment also means that the Caretaker Committee has assumed the position of NEC and Convention because the NEC we used to know previously cannot be convened again.
“The Committee has the blessings of the President and other major stakeholders. We don’t have plans of extending our tenure, but when it becomes absolutely necessary, especially when you take into consideration what is involved in the sorting out the data involving 30 million registered members of the party, it looks most likely. We have recently inaugurated Registration Appeal Committee to review the complaints; we have to display the register for verifications, which may likely take some weeks, then ward and state congresses will start before the national convention will hold. I tell you that it can only take a miracle for all these to be concluded before the expiration of the tenure of the Caretaker Committee in June,” the source said.