By David Lawani
The Director of Press, All Progressives Congress, APC, Salisu Na’inna Dambatta has disclosed that the party has not fixed any date for its convention as all contentious issues at the ward, local and state congresses must be resolved before calling for a national convention.
He spoke with Thisnigeria in his office in Abuja on Monday saying the party will not be rushing into a convention until all issues are resolved.
Danbatta said he cannot jump the gun on when it will be held but that all the issues in the ward, local, and state congresses will be resolved before inviting people to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory for the convention. He said there is a procedure and process that must be followed.
According to him: ” The issue of the convention is certain but I cannot say exactly when it will be. I cannot jump the gun to say this is exactly when it will hold. I cannot pretend about the date.
”As I said, the procedures are on. The appeal committees are working. You must have also seen the advert by the National Reconciliation Committee headed by Senator Abduhali Adamu in the newspapers”, he said.
He disclosed that like the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, when they held theirs, they had to address all contentious issues from their ward, local, and state congresses before mooting the idea of their national convention.
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He explained that conventions are populated by people and there is a need to get the issues sorted out before inviting them from all the states in Nigerian for a national convention.
”Like when PDP want to do their convention. They held a series of meetings to organize and ensure state congresses were conducted before they came to Abuja. It is the same thing that is happening in APC. Like the PDP, APC has conducted ward, local, and state congresses. They are resolving all areas of contentions through appeal committees to do the same clearance and resolutions that arose at the congresses.
”And when all that is over and the coast is clear, then you can call for a convention. The convention is populated by delegates It is only when you have done all this that you will know who will be the delegates. Through that, you can know you are ready. So, that is the position.
”Even when the appeal committee finishes their work they have to report to the Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee led by Mai Bala Buni who will now take it to the NEC for ratification then more meetings will be convened with stakeholders to agree on a date for the convention. That is how it is done”.
It will be recalled that the last state congresses conducted by the party had parallel executives in more than 12 states. As a result of that, appeal committees have been set up and they are still looking for ways to bring all the aggrieved party members to a roundtable so that those contentious issues are resolved.
