Governors elected on the platform of ruling All Progressives Congress, APC on Wednesday said they are not divided on the issue of election of new executives for the party from the wards to the national level.
The governors spoke after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Rock presidential villa in response to reports that they could not reach a decision over tenure elongation of Chief John Oyegun-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party at a meeting held with the President on Tuesday.
But the governors of Zamfara, Abdulazeez Yari, Plateau, Simon Lalong, Imo, Rochas Okorocha, Kano, Abdullahi Ganduje and Ogun Ibikunle Amosun, told State House Correspondents that they will abide by the constitution of Nigeria and that of their party by conducting local government congresses.
According to Yari, “Gentlemen of the press, you know yesterday we left you in the dark after the meeting and today we have seen so many captions that there is disagreement between the governors over the issue of party Chairman or about the party leadership.
“No. We had a meeting with Mr. President yesterday (Tuesday), and we extended the meeting to night and we followed up with the consultations with the President now.
“We consulted and all the 24 governors of the APC are in the same page with Mr. President that we are going to respect our party constitution, we are going to respect the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So therefore, we collectively agreed that we will have congresses at all levels – Local – State and National.
“So, there is no deadlock in our meeting, we have progressed and very soon you will have the names of the convention committee members as well as the timetable.”
Yari added that the governor would meet with the NWC to set up a convention planning committee for the party as well as timetable for the congresses.
He added that a committee set up by Oyegun on Tuesday on the issue of tenure elongation would submit its report today.
Okorocha on his part said, “I just want to let you know that there is no crisis in the APC at all. And we want to use this opportunity to advise the media operatives to stop spreading rumors of crisis in APC. There is no single crisis in APC.
“The issue was one of people who believe that we did not have enough time to organize a party congress and run election. Some people felt that it was a good idea but the most important thing is that, if we do that we will be contravening both our party constitution and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That is the major issue that we have that they call crisis. We do not have crisis.
