APC TO HOLD CONVENTION WITHOUT BUHARI – GOVS

Governors of the All Progressives Congress under the aegis of Progressives Governors Forum, and the National Working Committee of the party, yesterday agreed to go ahead and hold its long overdue mid-term National Convention.

The governors, who passed a vote of confidence on the Muhammadu Buhari APC-led government, declared, “We have done well,” adding that they would meet with the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on a date for the convention.

Briefing newsmen after a closed-door meeting at the party’s national secretariat, the Plateau state Governor, Simon Lalong, said the problem facing the party “will soon be a thing of the past,” stressing that the APC “now has reasons to smile.”

Lalong said the governors’ meeting with the NWC reviewed the situation in the party, and henceforth resolved to take issues concerning their party more seriously.

The governor who spoke in company of his Niger state counterpart, Sani Bello, and the APC National Publicity Secretary, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi, said, “That was essentially the purpose of this meeting.

“We also agreed that this meeting will be on a monthly basis. We started last month, today is another meeting and next month will be another meeting. The issue of National Convention was raised and it was part of the decisions we took at the last meeting. Unfortunately, like you already know, the President is not around and he is the leader of the party.”

Continuing, he said: “So, what we have done is that since we have an acting president, the team that was supposed to meet with the President with a suggested date convenient, the same team should meet with the Acting President.

“We are going to organise a convention which is constitutional and the leader of the party must also be at the convention. The time we agreed to meet with the President, he had to travel out of the country and now, the Acting President is around.

“The first approach was to the President, and now, we all agreed that if the President is not there, there is an acting president and so, we are going to meet with him to agree on a date for the convention.

“During our last meeting, we had issues, but today, things have changed and people are smiling. The party is even smiling. So, those challenges have been taken over by events. That is why I told you that even if we were backward before, now, we are taking issues of our party seriously and we are meeting on monthly basis. So, issues like that are no longer issues in APC.

“Part of the conclusion of the meeting was a report on the issues and disagreement in some states such as Bauchi and Kogi. The party reported that they have invited those people and those issues are almost resolved.”

Addressing the meeting earlier, APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie- Oyegun, commended the governors for delivering on their promises to their people, saying most of the achievements of the governors were being downplayed.

He expressed happiness that the party leadership and the governors were meeting regularly now, saying: “I want to say that I am so happy that we have met twice and we are seeing the effects, very positive, very salutary effects are beginning to manifest in the party