BOT CHAIR: DARK DAYS AHEAD FOR APC

The battle for the chairmanship of the All Progressives Congress Board of Trustees may be a fierce one among former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; former interim National Chairman of the APC, Bisi Akande; and a chieftain of the party, Audu Ogbeh.

Article 13.2 (X) of the APC Constitution (October 2014 as amended), which deals with the powers of the BoT, stipulates: “The Board of Trustees shall elect its chairman, deputy chairman, secretary and other officers as it deems necessary, and formulate its own rules and procedures to regulate its meetings and activities.”
This must have prompted the National Executive Committee of the All Progressives Congress, to ratify proposals made for the inclusion of some members of the party’s Board of Trustees. No sooner had the NEC approved proposals made by the party’s National Legal Adviser, Dr. Muiz Banire, that some contenders emerged for the chairmanship of the BoT.

S/WEST APC ACCUSES BUHARI OF ETHNIC-BASED APPOINTMENTS

South-West states’ chairmen of the All Progressives Congress, APC, have decried the pattern of appointments by President Muhammadu Buhari, saying all of them had ethnic slant.
They said aside his spokesman, Mr. Femi Adesina, every other appointments so far made by Buhari have been from the core North and all of them northern Muslims.
The party chairmen vowed not to recognise the emergence of Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara until the crisis in the National Assembly is resolved by the party.
In a joint statement they issued yesterday, the chairmen vowed to resist any attempt by some elements in the party to humiliate the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

BISI AKANDE ATTACKS SARAKI AGAIN

FORMER interim national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, has again thrown punches at the duo of the Senate president, Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, declaring that they would not be allowed to destroy the APC as they did their former party.
He stressed that the party made them and as suchthey cannot defy it.
Akande, in an interview with Saturday Tribune, rose above the criticisms that trailed his statement earlier this week that shocked many members of his political party by insisting that respecting the position of the party’s leadership remains the only path for Saraki and Dogara to follow.
He said the APC was responsible for the election of the top legislators in the first instance and as such, they could not rise above the party’s principles and regulations. 

BUHARI WARNS APC AGAINST LOSS OF VICTORY

• As Tinubu, Akande, Osinbajo stay away from NEC meeting
The meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) got underway this morning with President, Muhammadu Buhari cautioning leaders of the party against getting involved in unnecessary in- fighting that might cost it the hard-earned victory.
One noticeable thing at the opening of meeting was the absence of leaders of the party from the South-west, including the former Lagos state governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, pioneer interim national Chairman of APC, Chief Bisi Akande and the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbanjo.

APC SET FOR STORMY NEC MEETING TODAY

Efforts to resolve the leadership tussle in the National Assembly, particularly the House of Representatives, failed on Wednesday as a late-hour meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock Villa did not come out with a clear position on the issue.
The PUNCH learnt that though the President had an audience with a group led by a former House MinorityLeader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, the meeting only resolved to push the issue to the National Executive Committee of the All Progressives Congress for resolution.
The APC NEC is scheduled to meet on Friday (today). Analysts said on Thursday that the outcome of the meeting of today would either launch the ruling party on the path of recovery or mar it.

APC LEADERS MEET TO RESOLVE ‘CIVIL WAR’

• NEC may spare Odigie-Oyegun 
• Dogara moves to redeem House’s image
IN a bid to reposition the All Progressives Congress (APC) and calm the storm arising from the emergence of National Assembly leadership, President Muhammadu Buhari and other leaders are billed to attend the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party in Abuja tomorrow.
Among leaders of the party expected at the parley are Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Chief Ogbonnaya Onu.
Meanwhile, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has formally inaugurated the Ad-hoc Committee on Media and Public Affairs to correct misconceptions and improve the corporate image of the House.
Dogara also yesterday formally inaugurated the Ad-hoc Committee on Code of Conduct to deter and sanction specific cases of unethical behaviour by members in the broader context of preventing and fighting corruption such as conflict of interest, transparency and disclosure of interest on matters before the House.
The committee is to fashion out a code of conduct that members would subject themselves to.

NORTHERN ELITE, OIL BARONS BEHIND APC CRISIS -AKANDE

The former interim national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, has described the crisis rocking the ruling party over the composition of principal officers of the National Assembly as a conspiracy aimed at hijacking the party before the 2019 election. In a statement issued yesterday, the former Osun State governor noted that the current impasse in the party is the handiwork of the defunct New Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members in the APC, polluted interests in the business sector, some Northern elites, and the Nigerian oil subsidy barons. According to Akande, after the March 28 elections won the APC, a meeting was held by certain old New PDP leaders in Alhaji Kawu Baraje’s house at Abuja to review what should be their (former New PDP members) share in Buhari’s government.

NASS LEADERSHIP CRISIS: APC PLOTS OYEGUN’S SACK

■ Party mulls sanction against Saraki, Atiku for ‘anti-party activities’
National Chairman of the All Progres¬sives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun may soon be relived of his job owing to “loss of confi¬dence” in him by top lead¬ers of the party.
Saturday Sun gathered that the party’s top guns met with President Muhammadu Bu¬hari on Thursdaynight.
The agenda was the crisis rocking the party in the Na¬tional Assembly, the role of the national chairman and how to move the party for¬ward.
At the end of the meet¬ing it was resolved that the chairman would be asked to go. According to an insider, the meeting held him solely responsible for the crisis, be¬lieving that he has not “dis¬charged the responsibilities of his office creditably”, es¬pecially since the incident of May 9, 2015 at the National Assembly.
And outside the Presiden¬tial Villa, loyalists of the par¬ty’s national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in the NWC have constituted themselves into a vanguard for Oyegun’s sack. It is believed that these loyalists control the NWC as a body.

NASS PRINCIPAL OFFICERS: APC WRITES SARAKI, DOGARA, APPROVES LAWAN, GBAJABIAMILA, OTHERS

Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday wrote to the Senate president, Dr Bukola Saraki and the speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, to convey the party’s approval of Senator Ahmed Lawan and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila as majority leaders in the two chambers of the 8th National Assembly.
The APC national working committee also approved Senator George Akume and five others as principal officers.
The APC leaders’ position was communicated to both the president of the Senate and the speaker, House of Representatives, by the national chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, in a separate letters.

APC CRISIS GETS MESSY: 8 GOVERNORS ASK OYEGUN TO RESIGN AS NATIONAL CHAIRMAN

ABUJA – Crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress, APC appeared to have now sprawled into a full blown war between the governors elected on the party’s platform and the national chairman of the party, Chief John Oyegun with the governors asking him to honorably resign.
The governors who paid a surprised visit to Oyegun at the party’s national secretariat on Tuesday after their meeting with president Mohammadu Buhari were said to have conveyed their demands to the chairman in a closed door meeting they had with him.
The governors who visited Oyegun included Comrade Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), Tanko Al-Makura (Nasarawa), Mallam Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Abubakar Sani Bello (Niger) Senator Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi) and Abubuakar Badaru (Jigawa).
Highly placed party sources revealed that the governors were not happy with Oyegun’s poor handling of the crisis bedeviling APC on the heels of the recent National Assembly elections that enthroned Senator Bukola Saraki and Rep. Yakubu Dogara as senate president and speaker, House of Representatives respectively.
- Vanguard

NASS FEUD: APC STATE CHAIRMEN BACK BUHARI, OYEGUN

• As Tinubu's absence stalls BoT meeting
• Saraki not to blame, says APC scribe
The Chairmen of the state chapters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday expressed support for the stand taken by President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun over the emergence of the new leadership at the National Assembly.

The position of APC state chairmen came just as facts emerged that the meeting of the party's Board of Trustees (BoT) scheduled to take place Wednesday had to be postponed owing to the absence of the former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

APC: UNEASY CALM

‘Rebels’ plot sack of party’s NEC
■ How UK envoy’s visit forced U-turn
■ The counter ‘coup’ that was aborted
■ Focus shifts to remaining 4 seats
Unless the various contending forc¬es arraigned against each other radically and urgently beat a quick retreat from their rigid positions, the All Progressives Congress (APC) may be in for a messy and prolonged crisis.
Fresh indications to this effect emerged, last Thursday, when rather than show intents of reconciliation with a view to mending the widening cracks, they resorted to digging deeper into their positions and literally dar¬ing each other.
And this is without recourse to the belated assurances of acceptance of and co-opera¬tion with the new leadership of the National Assembly by the top party leadership last Friday.
The u-turn was indeed timely and dra¬matic as a little delay would have spiralled the crises out of control, given the dramatis personae involved and the direction it was headed.

APC MAKES A U-TURN, ACCEPTS SARAKI AS SENATE PRESIDENT

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, on Friday said the party has accepted Senator Bukola Saraki as the President of the Senate.
He said the reality was that Saraki’s colleagues had duly elected him and the party was ready to live with the reality.
Odigie-Oyegun spoke with State House correspondents shortly after joining members of the transition committee set up by President Muhammadu Buhari to present their report to the President at the Defence House, Abuja.
Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, both of the APC, emerged as leaders of the National Assembly on Tuesday against the directives of the party which had earlier asked its members to vote for Senator Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila.

APC RESOLVES RIFT AMONG ITS REPS’ MEMBERS

• Gbajabiamila, Monguno agree to work with Dogara
• Speaker seeks donor confab for North-East over B’Haram
IN a bid to ensure delivery of democracy dividends, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has resolved the rift among its members in the House of Representatives over the election of Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara.
The Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party met yesterday with Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila and those in support of his aspiration to be Speaker of the House of Representatives for about two hours at the party’s secretariat in Abuja.
Gbajabiamila, who was the preferred candidate of the party, told reporters after the parley that Dogara would enjoy the support of his group.
e said: “We came to meet with the party. We just had an election in the House; so we came to meet with the party regarding the outcome of the election and the party is going to remain strong and united so that we can deliver the deliverables and the programmes of the party through the House.

N’ASSEMBLY LEADERS: SARAKI, DOGARA TREACHEROUS, DISLOYAL, SAYS APC

The All Progressives Congress has described as totally unacceptable and the “highest level of indiscipline and treachery” the conduct of Tuesday’s inauguration of the National Assembly that led to the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and Mr. Yakubu Dogara as Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively.
This was contained in a statement by APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Abuja on Tuesday.
APC said, “Senator Bukola and Hon. Dogara are not the candidates of the APC and a majority of its National Assembly members-elect for the positions of Senate President and House Speaker. The party duly met and conducted a straw poll and clear candidates emerged for the posts of Senate President, Deputy Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, supported by a majority of all Senators-elect and members-elect of the House of Representatives.

APPOINTMENT: ‘APC IS HOLDING BUHARI HOSTAGE’

• President in dilemma as North insists on producing SGF, NSA, CoS
Three days after his inauguration, President Muhammadu Buhari has not been able to make key appointments due to a crisis of confidence that has pitted him against power blocs in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). This has made the National Coordinator of the Concerned Northern Professional Forum (CNPF), Dr. Mohammed Junaid, to accuse a section of the APC leadership of trying to arm-twist Buhari to make some appointments against his wish. He accused the APC of trying to use zoning to hold Buhari captive, saying resorting to allotting positions on zonal basis is inimical to good governance.
The president, which on Sunday named Managing Director, Sun Newspapers, Mr. Femi Adesina and head of media of his campaign organisation, Mallam Garba Shehu, as spokesmen, is yet to unveil names of Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chief of Staff, among others.

SENATE PRESIDENCY: APC MAY CONDUCT PRIMARIES FOR LAWAN, SARAKI, AKUME

The All Progressives Congress (APC) is not keen on zoning principal positions in the 8th National Assembly especially Senate presidency and speakership of the House of Representatives.
It prefers to allow members decide those who lead them.
The party, according to its National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has decided to throw the positions open to those interested in occupying them.
He hinted that the APC would rather “do what we did during the presidential primaries.”
Top ranking party officials are understood to have been holding consultations on the sharing of positions to avoid cracks in their ranks and ensure a smooth take-off for President-elect Muhammadu Buhari.

“IT’S TIME TO STOP LYING”, PDP TELLS APC SPOKESMAN, LAI MOHAMMED

Press Statement
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has admonished the spokesman of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed to learn to be truthful, honest and desist from fabricating lies that could be injurious to democracy and peaceful co-existence in the country.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh in a statement on Wednesday said “but for the maturity of President Goodluck Jonathan and the head of the APC’s Transition Committee, Alhaji Ahmed Joda, who cleared the air, the country would have been thrown into crisis over the false alert by Lai Mohammed that the Presidency was frustrating the transition process.

“After Alhaji Joda debunked Lai Mohammed’s false statement and denied that his committee was being frustrated by the PDP-led Presidency, we waited for forty-eight hours expecting the APC spokesman to apologize to the nation, but this has not been done.

NO PREFERRED CANDIDATE FOR SENATE PRESIDENCY, SAYS APC

The All Progressives Congress on Friday said it had no preferred candidate for the Senate President position.
This is even as supporters of former Kwara State Governor, Senator Bukola Saraki, have begun to celebrate his perceived secret endorsement by about 70 senators drawn from across the six geo-political zones of the country.
Saturday PUNCH leant in Abuja that APC has yet to take final decision on the issue of zoning. The party has tentatively zoned the position to the North-Central.
Those being touted for the position from the zone include Senators Saraki, George Akume and Abdullahi Adamu.
It was gathered that the national leadership of the party is trying to avoid a backlash from its members in the Senate.
This, it was learnt, gave rise to what some senators say is a gentleman agreement to allow them freely choose the next Senate President.

APC TO REVISIT JONATHAN’S ELEVENTH HOUR CONTRACTS, APPOINTMENTS

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has vowed to review all the appointments made and contracts awarded at the eleventh hour by President Goodluck Jonathan, who is due to hand over power to General Muhammadu Buhari on May 29, 2015.
The APC said looking into the recent activities of the Jonathan’s government was not a witch hunt but part of a standard procedure put in place to ensure that such activities were not capable of jeopardizing the incoming administration’s efforts at fulfilling its electoral promises.
Party officials who confided in Sunday Trust in Abuja said some of the outgoing administration’s policies were unpopular and needed to be looked into.
Two of the officials who pleaded anonymity, in an interview in Abuja, were unanimous in saying that all the leaders of the APC were uncomfortable with the recent last-minute appointments by the Jonathan administration.