APC group warns Progressive Governors against subverting 2022 Electoral Act

The All Progressive Congress (APC) Action Group has issued a stern warning to the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) against subverting 2022 Electoral Act by attempting to change the date of the national convention of the party.

The group who gave the warning in a press statement released by its Publicity Secretary, Bisi Olanipekun, on Tuesday 1st March, 2022, said it has noticed the scheming of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) to change the date of the party’s convention as part of their unrelenting attempt at power grab.

APC Action Group warned that the PGF members “risk jeopardizing the chances of the APC based on legal technicalities if they continue to subject electoral processes to their whims as opposed to conducting every single activity in accordance with extant legislation, they must be prepared to face the wrath of party members and Nigerians should they sabotage the nation’s democracy with their selfishness.”

The group reechoed the assertion of the Chairman of the Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, who categorically stated in the wake of presidential assent to the Electoral Act that “the Electoral Act provides strict timelines for the implementation of electoral activities based on the date of the General Election.”

The Group insisted that by that assertion, “the activities of political parties, to the extent that they are part of the 2023 General Elections, are no longer a matter for a cabal or cartel to decide. Political parties must now either abide by the law or lose out completely. It is instructive that the amended Electoral Act the INEC Chairman is relying on is the product of a National Assembly that has APC in majority and assented to by an APC executive.”

It continued: “The Governors on APC platform must therefore know that their plot to shift the party’s convention closer would be a breach of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and the Electoral Law because any political party that wants to hold a convention or congress must give at least 30 days notice to INEC.

“Instructively, the dates anticipated by the governors would abysmally fail to give the statutory 30 days’ notice to the electoral body, with the implication that any decision reached at the convention would invariably be overturned by a competent court once anyone mounts a judicial challenge against such.

“Secondly, by changing the convention date to be inconsistent with the law, the governors are trying to undermine the person and office of President Muhammadu Buhari by making him complicit, as the party’s leader, in breaching the electoral law he only recently assented to.

“Thirdly, the APC Action Group wants to reiterate its earlier position that with the new timetable released by INEC, we demand unequivocally that the presidential primaries be held on the same date with our national convention.

“Our reason for this is the need to save money for the party and to shield party members from expending so much resources to travel twice for events that could have been collapsed into one; this is in addition to the security challenges associated with road travel.

“In addition to the above, holding the national convention and presidential primary on the same day will stave off the potential for disgruntled persons to frivolously jump ship only to again return to the party after the general elections. If we are truly committed to APC’s victory at the General Elections we will ensure to deploy the kind of strategy that will make good things happen for the party.

“The APC Action therefore warn PGF in very clear terms that they would be held individually and jointly accountable if they create a legal crisis that scuttle APC’s chances by tinkering with the date for the National Convention. The serial shenanigans of the governors had plunged the party deeper into crisis at a time when they should have been providing stabilizing leadership; the signing of the Electoral Act should have been a sobering moment of them to be retracing their steps and not to worsen the problems they already created for the party.”

The called on APC stakeholders to be prepared to set the governors right including having “political showdown” with them if they decide to persist in forcing “unrealistic and illegal convention dates” on the party, adding that they must be unequivocally told that they may hold high offices at the moment, but they do not own the APC.