Again Uncertainty Hits APC March National Convention

There are clouds of uncertainty hanging over the national convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) a few weeks to the much-postponed exercise following the failure of the party’s national leadership to write a fresh notification to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) within the 21-day legal window.

Already, the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) had equally reneged in its earlier released timetable and schedule of activities, failing to start the sale of nomination forms for zonal congresses fixed to hold between Monday, February 28 to Thursday, March 3, 2022.

The Caretaker Committee had written INEC in a letter signed by the Chairman and Secretary of Caretaker Committee, Governor Mai Mala Buni and Senator John James Akpanudoedehe respectively, to notify it of its arrangement to conduct zonal congresses on Saturday, March 26, 2022.

Although the ruling party made a U-turn to fix the convention for March 26, it did not open another correspondence with the commission to notify it of the change in the arrangement for the convention, 21 days to the scheduled date.

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A source at the Commission said that he cannot authenticate the receipt of any fresh correspondent from the ruling party, saying that the commission ought to have received the fresh letter by yesterday.

“I cannot confirm to you now whether APC has written to notify the Commission of the new date, but the party was supposed to do so by yesterday to meet up with the 21 days deadline. However, I want to also add that they still have a window of writing a reminder instead of a new letter,” he said.

Another source, however, told our correspondent that the Caretaker Committee is not ready to conduct the convention, adding that the party’s leadership are pondering the option of combining the convention with the party’s primary, arguing that it will be very difficult to conduct the two exercises differently.