APC distances self from Buhari’s controversial board appointments  

The national chairman of the All Progressive Congress, APC, John Oyegun, has said the party should not be blamed for the controversy that trailed President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent board appointments as it was not fully involved in the process.

The chairman, while speaking with journalists on Saturday in Abuja, said the appointments had caused enough controversy.

The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, recently announced the appointment of 209 board chairpersons and 1,258 board members.

In the appointments, PREMIUM TIMES reported how names of deceased persons were included, others duplicated and a few non-members of the ruling APC included.

The presidency has since owned up to the anomalies in the list, saying the errors would be corrected.

Also, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and other Nigerians described the appointments as an unpardonable national embarrassment and avoidable.

Mr. Oyegun said the party was involved in the early stage of the process but was not consulted at the end, ”otherwise some of the fully obvious problems in that list wouldn’t have been there.”

He urged the presidency to consult it in any future amendments to the list so as to avoid other anomalies.

“The list has caused enough controversy. It is pretty obvious that that the party was not involved in the final completion of the list.

“We demanded that that every state send nominees’ names to the committee set up for that but between then and now a lot has happened. People have changed parties, people have died, three governors who were not there before are now with us.

“It is my hope that we will be fully involved in review that has to now take place,” he said.

He also spoke on the delay in the holding of convention by the party which has been criticised by many.

“We are going to have our convention. We will kickstart with the caucus and NEC. This will be done at the end of the month give or take then we will go through the processes of congresses,” he said.

The chairman equally spoke on some strides made by the APC-led government.

“Power will continue to improve not just in its generation but in distribution. The Buhari’s administration has stabilised the situation, it has firmed up the capacity to distribute. We are firmly in the process of feeding ourselves,” he added.