The National Executive Committee of the ruling All Progressives Congress on Tuesday dissolved all states, zonal, and national party structures.
The party’s NEC also extended the tenure of the party’s caretaker extraordinary convention planning committee led by Governor Mai Buni by six months.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the committee attended by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.); Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and other party chiefs.
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, told State House correspondents at the end of the meeting that the party also approved the expulsion of former National Vice Chairman, South-south, Ntufam Hilliard Eta, for his failure to withdraw the court case instituted against the caretaker committee.
Meanwhile, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), appealed to party members at all levels to make sacrifices that will move the party forward.
Buhari said this in his opening remarks at the ongoing meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The President said, “I want to appeal to all our party members and leaders at all levels, to try and make the required sacrifices so that we are able to collectively restore our progressive and democratic political party, which can nurture and give expression to our collective dream of building a strong, united and developed Nigeria.
“May I use this opportunity to remind all of us of the need to recreate our negotiation secret of 2012, 2013 under our legacy parties. What guided our success to achieve the merger that produced the APC was the respect we were able to have for each other.
“In those times, decisions reached both formal and informal consultations were respected with trusted initiatives taken and believed that they were needed to produce the required political platform that could guarantee electoral victory.
“Everyone of us as leaders ensured that those decisions were respected. I have through consultations of the caretaker committee and other leaders of the party, agree that our challenges in the party require that we take steps to rebuild the party from wards to national levels.
“The initiative to carry out membership registration revalidation is, therefore, a necessary, membership registration revalidation will lay the foundation for reorganizing our membership from ward to local government, state, and national levels.
“The responsibility of our party’s NEC at this meeting is to adopt and dispassionately consider all proposals submitted by the caretaker committee and grant all the necessary approvals requested to rebuild the party.”
PDP asks INEC to declare all APC seats vacant
The Peoples Democratic Party has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission to declare all legislative seats occupied by members of the All Progressives Congress vacant.
PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, made the request in a statement to react to the dissolution of all APC structures.
The PUNCH had reported that APC at its National Executive Council meeting on Tuesday announced the dissolution of all its structures at the ward, state, zonal and national levels.
Ologbondiyan in the statement titled, ‘PDP Congratulates Nigerians as APC, Their Tormentor, Finally Fizzles’ also asked INEC to deregister APC.
The statement read, “The Peoples Democratic Party congratulates Nigerians across the country, as their tormentor for five years, the All Progressives Congress, has finally dissolved out of our political firmament.
“The party said the APC, being overburdened by the weight of failure, humongous corruption as well as the plagues of economic recession, violence, killings, and hardship it has brought to our people, forcefully exited itself from the nation’s political firmament by dissolving all its national, zonal and state structures.
With this exit, December 8, 2020, has gone into the history of our nation as liberation day, especially given the spontaneous jubilation by Nigerians over this step towards political oblivion by a political party that has brought so much pain on them.
“Now that the APC has become defunct, the PDP invites the Independent National Electoral Commission to officially deregister the APC and recall its certificate of registration, given that it no longer has operational structures as required by law.
PUNCH
