The All Progressives Congress (APC) National Convention Central Coordination Committee has assigned the party’s national offices to all six geopolitical zones in accordance with federal character principles.
The Chairman of the committee, Bello Masari, who said this on Thursday at a news conference in Abuja, said strict adherence to the party’s zoning formula would prevent disgruntled elements from creating confusion in the party.
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Mr Masari, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, expressed the party’s readiness to organise a befitting convention.
The convention is scheduled for 27 and 28 March in Abuja.
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According to Mr Masari, the party operates under a federal character structure, in which all offices are assigned to specific geopolitical zones.
He dismissed allegations that some aspirants vying for elective offices in the party were denied access to the forms, describing such moves as calculated attempts to create confusion.
“APC is a responsible party, and it is a Nigerian party. In line with the federal character, all offices are zoned.
“When an office is zoned to ‘A’, and you are in ‘Z’ and want to buy that form, we suspect you only want to create confusion.
“Like the way our country is, the structures of the party are on a zonal basis, and the working committee members are also distributed according to the zones.
“So, if you are contesting for office not zoned to your zone, how can you say you are being democratic?
“We suspect these kinds of people are agents who want to come and destabilise our party, which we will not agree to. I don’t think any responsible party in Nigeria will agree,” Mr Masari said.
The committee chairman also said that the party was not aware that any aggrieved aspirants had gone to court, adding that the party had not been served any court processes regarding their complaints.
“We are not aware that anyone has gone to court; we have not been served. I am sure we are a responsible party. If we are served, we will take note of that,” he added.
Mr Masari said that the party was ready to set the pace for a more durable democratic process in Nigeria and the African continent.
“We are the leaders of what we have started, and what we are doing is to strengthen democracy, not only in APC, but in all political parties.
“We are the leaders, and we are going to set the pace for a more durable, reliable, dependable, democratic process in Nigeria.
“I am sure that the outcome of what we are going to do on Friday and Saturday will justify and also affirm what I have said,” Mr Masari said.
READ ALSO: National Convention: APC defends zoning arrangement, says 8,453 delegates to attend event
He said that, so far, the committee was satisfied with the preparations and processes for the convention, which began about two months ago with wards, local government, and state congresses.
“The central coordinating committee started its work about three weeks ago. We started with 25 subcommittees covering all areas.
“We are so far satisfied with all that has been done. And to assure Nigerians and even those outside Nigeria that APC is very ready for the convention of 2026 that will start in the early hours of tomorrow,” he said.
(NAN)
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