The All Progressives Congress (APC) has perfected plans to displace the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the dominant party in the South-South, ahead of future elections.
New Telegraph gathered that the party has raised a committee to evolve strategy to facilitate integration of the zone into the party’s power base.
Membership of the committee has been kept under close wraps even as a source close to the APC leadership said the plan for bringing the South- South, which along with the South-East voted overwhelmingly for the PDP in the last general elections, would commence soon after the swearing in of Major General Muhammadu Buhari on May 29. According to him, some preliminary arrangements have been concluded to strengthen the party in the geopolitical zone.
He said the party leadership was considering Rivers State Governor, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi and former Bayelsa State Governor, Chief Timipre Sylva, as rallying points for repositioning the APC in the zone by ensuring they play prominent roles in the incoming administration. Besides, the APC will vigorously pursue the pending cases at the governorship election tribunals in Akwa Ibom and Rivers states by ensuring the tribunals nullify the results of the governorship elections in the two states won by PDP candidates.
The party is hopeful that should the elections in the two states be nullified, it stands a better chance of winning in fresh governorship polls in the states.
The source, who was reacting to reports that some allies of President Goodluck Jonathan from the Niger Delta were lobbying to be retained in their positions beyond Jonathan’s tenure on May 29, said rather than concede to their pressures, the APC was more determined to strengthen its support base in the South-South.
”All those stories about some people lobbying to be retained cannot work in our party. We thank God that Alhaji Lai Mohammed has clearly declared that all those spending money to induce leaders of the APC are wasting time. ”But beyond that, rather than retaining them, we are also not planning other means to increase or rather deepen our presence in the South-South.
We are already doing that because we want APC to be felt in all nooks and crannies of Nigeria. Right now, a small, but strategic committee is working on how to effectively integrate the South-South to the centre because we cannot afford to be left behind in the General Buhari government. ”So it is a thing we have been planning within us rather than retaining those who made the president to fail.
The options are many and we shall not leave any of those options out in planting the APC in the hearts of the people of the South-South. ”If for instance, the NDDC is totally overhauled and redirected to focus on people-oriented activities rather than sponsoring governorship candidates, what will be the need to retain Jonathan’s men there? To do what there?
And if we push for the cancellation of fraudulent governorship elections and we succeed, are you saying we will not reclaim Rivers and Akwa Ibom in free and fair contests?”
The source said the party leadership was looking in the direction of both Amaechi and Sylva in Rivers and Bayelsa respectively, for them to play key roles in the government at the federal level.
In the case of Bayelsa State, it was gathered that while Sylva is being pushed to be made a minister, former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC), Mr. Timi Alaibe, might be pressurised to run for the 2016 governorship on the platform of the APC.
-New Telegraph
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