APC.

NWC to meet on congresses, convention before NEC

Opponents of tenure elongation have carried the day in the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Its National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, last night bowed to pressure from governors and party leaders to forego tenure extension.

He has summoned an emergency meeting of the National Working  Committee (NWC) for 8am  today to draw the timetable for state congresses and National Convention.

The meeting will hold before the National Executive Committee (NEC) session begins at 11am.

A member of the NWC said: “We were all shocked to get a text message inviting us for  NWC meeting by 8am on Monday when all we were preparing for was the NEC session.

“Some of us inquired and we were told that the NWC meeting will draw the timetable for state congresses and the National Convention for consideration by NEC. This was what we told him to do last Thursday.

“We suspect that the latest development must have accounted for Oyegun’s U-turn. From the horse-trading so far, all the APC governors have backed out of tenure extension for Oyegun and the NWC.

“We learnt the last governor to ditch him yesterday was Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State.”

Another NWC member said: “I think summoning NWC meeting very early in the morning before NEC amounted to panic on the part of the national chairman.

“Some of us were really amazed when we got the text message. This was the same Oyegun who did not allow us access to the report of the Governor Simon Lalong Committee which was set up by the NWC.

“We had the whole weekend, he did not call for any meeting. Now, he wants to hold a pre-emptive meeting.

“We will go there and listen to what he has in stock for us.”

There were talks last night that Oyegun might seek to recontest based on some governors’ advice. But, it was not clear if he would heed the advice.

If he does, he would have to jostle for the seat again with former Governors Adams Oshiomhole (Edo) and Clement Ebri (Cross River).

Investigation by our correspondent revealed that pro-Buhari governors reached out to NEC members to accept his proposal for elective congresses and National Convention.