We won’t attend national confab, APC insists

The All Progressives Congress has not changed its stance on the planned national conference. The party  said it would not send any representative to the conference.

As part of the modalities for the national conference, political parties that have representation in the National Assembly – the Peoples Democratic Party, the All Progressives Congress, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, the Accord Party, and the Labour Party – were required to nominate two delegates each, making 10 delegates from political parties.

But the Interim National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Lai Mohammed, told SUNDAY PUNCH that the party had decided not to send any delegate to the conference in line with its belief that the conference was ill-timed and would not solve the country’s problems.

According to Mohammed, the fact that states under the control of APC would send representatives to the conference does not mean the party had changed its mind about attending the conference. He added that the party would not impose its opinion on others.

He said, “APC as a party will not send representatives. But the governors, since they are not governors of APC members alone,  can appoint delegates to the conference. When a man is in charge of a state, he also leads members of other political parties in the state; they (APC governors) can appoint whoever they want to appoint.

“We, in APC, hold our partisan views and we have been consistent on our stance on the national conference. But the governors are leaders and citizens of their states. We cannot impose our views on everybody.”

Last Sunday, the Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, said states controlled by the APC would send delegates to the planned national conference as requested by the Federal Government.

Fayemi however said the decision to participate in the conference was without prejudice “to the party and the eventual outcome of the conference.”

According to him, the governors of APC-controlled states were of the opinion that the generality of the people of their respective states should be given the chance to express their views on sundry national issues at the conference.

The governor reportedly stated that the conference would serve as a means to resolve knotty national issues and a medium for communication.

Copyright PUNCH.