By Daniel Tyokua
A head of the forth coming All Progressives Congress (APC), national convention, APC Youths Stakeholders Forum has condemned any plan by the present party’s leaders to violate the accord of allowing party members to participate in delegates primaries.
The coordinator of the forum, Comrade Yunusa Yusuf told journalists in Abuja that, although there is provision for a consensus candidate in the constitution, but should be done through transparent arrangement whereby all the aspirants will endorse it, to show they accept the arrangement..
He stressed that all aspirants need to agree to the consensus arrangement so that the party does not run foul of the electoral laws that were recently signed by President Muhammad Buhari.
Yusuf explained that the party, in the spirit of justice, equity and fairness should allow all the aspirants for the position of the national chairmanship of the party to contest for the seat.
He decried the purported choice of Senator Abdullahi Adamu as consensus candidate for the national chairmanship position of the APC, adding that it is time for him to leave the political arena.
“We insist on a level playing ground for interested persons to contest party’s executive offices. So, we as APC members are basing our call on Article 20 (i) (a) of the APC Constitution, which gives room for the emergence of candidates through consensus with a provision that “a vote of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ should be called,” he said.
The group warned against a selection process that would amount to imposition, saying it could breed discontent and crisis in the party, and later lead to litigations.
“For us, the March 26 National Convention of the party is very sacrosanct and delegates should be allowed to carry membership right to elect and be elected as the national chairman following the agreed zoning arrangement, because many of them have been campaigning for the position, so they should not be robbed of their rights.
“It is no longer news that the party has suffered power tussle over the years, which has put some cracks in the party. But thank God, the party has come back strong and formidable again. We are advising that we should avoid anything that will make us go back to the old days of the leadership of Adams Oshiomhole.
“So we are sending a clear signal that this should be reversed, the delegates should come to choose who they want to lead them as National Chairman and other leadership positions of the party. The party should avoid anything that would make them breed a new set of aggrieved members,” he said.
