APC Peace Panel Gets 170 Petitions, Blames COVID-19 For Delayed Sittings

The All Progressives Congress National Reconciliation Committee has received no fewer than 170 petitions from aggrieved party members across the country.

The committee’s Secretary, Senator John Enoh, who disclosed this in an interview with one of our correspondents on Monday, said the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent ban on interstate movements made the panel to suspend its sittings across the country.

Enoh stated this as the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and the APC governors on Monday intensified efforts to prevent the party from disintegrating.

But as the President and the governors were meeting at the Presidential Villa, sides to the APC crisis at the national level were taking actions that showed that the problem was far from being over.

The party’s Deputy National Secretary, Victor Giadom, who last week declared himself as the acting national chairman following the National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole’s suspension by the Court of Appeal, disowned the governorship primary election conducted by the APC on Monday in Edo State.

On its part, the Abiola Ajimobi-led National Working Committee, consisting of 15 members of the NWC replaced Giadom as the deputy national secretary.

The APC National Reconciliation Committee headed by the party’s former Interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, was set up in February following the failure of previous panels to resolve the party’s crises across the country.

For example, Oshiomhole had in December set up a committee led by the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, to resolve the crises.

But the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, rejected the composition of the committee arguing that it would not be fair to him.

The party is currently battling crises at the national level and state chapters such as Edo, Zamfara, Bayelsa, Rivers and Ondo.

The Secretary to the APC peace panel, Senator John Enoh, told ANE that because of the nature of its assignment, the committee had not been able to make use of the Internet to conduct its meetings with aggrieved members.

In response to a question as to whether the committee had taken advantage of the Internet, Enoh said, “We tried that but it has not worked. As soon as it does, we will start. Our chairman (Chief Bisi Akande) is locked down in Osun State. We are just hoping now that flights will resume. If it is not certain that they will, we will have to see how to move around it and start.”

Asked if the committee had received additional petitions since the last time the panel met, he said, “Additional memos keep tickling in but not as many. We have about 170 memos from party members. We have our job cut out for us.”

The panel, a few months ago, said it had got 150 petitions.

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