…to constitute zoning panel
Barring any change of decision, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee will today decide on the date for the National Convention of the party.
The date of the convention has been source of controversies in the party to the extent that it caused the resignation of the Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum, Salihu Lukman. Different dates had been reported in the media for the convention but, on Sunday night, the APC governors said it is the prerogative of the caretaker committee to decide the date of the convention.
The governors also said that the chosen month, February, for the convention has not changed. There are only two Saturdays open to the caretaker committee to choose from in February. Those are February 5 and 19. February 12 and 26 has been scheduled for FCT local government and National Assembly bye-elections.
Also to be considered by the caretaker is the zoning of the offices and constitution of the sub-committees. The sub-committees are: finance, publicity, venue/protocol and security.
The convention was agreed on last year after a meeting of the governors with President Muhammadu Buhari. However, the date for the convention became an issue of concern. Reacting to the dates published in the media, a caretaker committee member said nobody was going to stampede the committee to choose a date.
According to the member, the committee would choose a date at the appropriate time. He said: Our date for convention would not be given to us in the newspapers.
We believe that we all the stakeholders agree on a date, the date would be announced.”
On today’s meeting, a source close to the committee said they might come up with a new month with definite date. He said the committee might choose first week in April. Meanwhile, according to a media source, the All Progressives Congress will set up a zoning committee today ahead of its planned convention.
All eyes are on the ruling party on where it would zone its national offices as this may give an indication of what region would produce the presidential candidate. If the chairmanship is zoned to the north, it may be the clearest indication yet that the presidency will go to the south.
It was also gathered that President Muhammadu Buhari would be briefed after the APC Caretaker Committee led by Yobe Governor Mai Mala Buni picks the zoning panel