…….New party Leadership to emerge before June
Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has exonerated the party from the appointment of dead persons as Chairmen and members of Boards of government parastatals and agencies.
Odigie-Oyegun, speaking in Abuja during a dinner with journalists in his private residence, said the party was not part of the final stages of the compilation of the list, explaining that while the party partook in the initial stages, it was not, however, privy to the final outcome.
Some of the dead persons whose names appeared on the list recently released by the presidency included Sen. Francis Okpozo, who passed on at 81 in 2016; Donald Ugbaja, and Rev. Fr. Christopher Utov, among others.
“We have followed the issue of board appointments and I think that issue has raised a lot of controversies already,” he said reacting to the incident.
“The only thing I want to add is that it is pretty obvious that the party was not involved in the final stages of the compilation of that list.
“Yes, we sent at the initial stage and I am talking of a period of two years ago. We demanded for every state to make 50 nominations which were sent to the committee in charge of the list for the purpose.
“They completed the initial exercise that time but since then a lot has happened. People have changed parties, people have died, we have three new governors that were not there when the list was compiled.
“Therefore, it was clear that there was obvious need for us to look at the final outcome of the exercise.
“But we were not fortunate to participate in that final stage, otherwise it is quite clear such would not have occurred.
“It is my sincere hope that we will be fully involved in the review that has to now take place and any other exercise moving forward from this day.”
The APC Chairman also gave an indication that a new leadership for the party will emerge before the end of June 2018, with the process beginning any moment from now with the National Caucus and National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, culminating in the national convention.
Oyegun said the NEC which is expected to hold either before the end of January or early February will fix the date for the elective national convention which is expected to produce a new leadership for the party.
He said the processes leading to the convention is expected to start with ward congresses, the local government and state congresses before the national convention.
