APC Crisis: Aggrieved members list conditions as party awaits peace panel’s report

The leadership of the All Progressives Congress is waiting for the reconciliation committee led by Senator Abdullahi Adamu to turn in its report before going ahead to announce the modalities for its national convention, The PUNCH has learnt.

Also, contrary to expectations, many governors of the APC who were expected to be in Abuja for a meeting on Sunday to decide when the convention would hold did not visit the nation’s capital.

The Senator Adamu-led committee has already visited Lagos, Osun, Ogun, Gombe and Kano states. Apart from Gombe State where Governor Inuwa Abdullahi and Senator Danjuma Goje agreed to sheathe their swords, there has been no indication so far that Adamu’s interventions have yielded any fruit.

It was, however, learnt that the committee had not been able to get a commitment from the states to withdraw their cases while some of the aggrieved factions had handed a list of conditions to the reconciliation committee.

In Osun State, Governor Gboyega Oyetola and his predecessor, Rauf Aregbesola, who is the current Minister of Interior, have been engaged in a publicised feud. At the congresses that were conducted last year, two factions are laying claim to the APC leadership.

Mr Kolapo Alimi, the Secretary of ‘The Osun Progressives,’  a faction supported by Aregbesola in Osun APC, during an interview with one of our correspondents, said despite meeting the Adamu committee, the case instituted against the ward congress of the party would continue.

Although he did not foreclose the possibility of an out of court settlement, he explained that after the group had presented its petition before the Adamu panel, it would wait for the committee to give a report before deciding whether it would withdraw the case or not.

He said, “The court case and reconciliation can go together. The court usually encourages out-of-court settlement. After settlement, whatever is agreed upon will be made a consent judgment of the court.

“We will wait for the report of the reconciliation committee. Their report will determine what will happen to the case. We have laid down our demands. So, the case will continue.”

In Ogun State where Governor Dapo Abiodun and his predecessor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, are fighting for the soul of the party, both sides have refused to sheathe their swords.

The chairman of the party in the state loyal to Amosun, Derin Adebiyi, who spoke with one of our correspondents in Abeokuta, said he was optimistic that there would be reconciliation but there was no update as of yet.

Meanwhile, journalists who gathered outside the APC national secretariat and the Kebbi State Governor’s lodge where APC governors’ meetings usually hold were disappointed on Sunday as the expected meeting did not hold.

Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, who is also the Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum, had said while briefing State House correspondents last Friday that APC governors would meet on Sunday with a view to deciding on a date for the convention.

When contacted on Sunday, however, the Director-General, Progressive Governors’ Forum, Salihu Lukman, said, “We don’t call meetings on the pages of Newspapers. Governor Lalong made those statements in error because he read in one of the papers that there would be a meeting.

“But the important thing is that definitely, consultation is going on and once the consultation is done and they decide on when the meeting will take place, I would be given the necessary directive to issue the appropriate notice to the governors.”

The Caretaker Committee led by Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State is, however, expected to meet on Wednesday over the matter.  (The PUNCH: Excludes headline)