A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Masari, and a former Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT,Nasir El-Rufai, have emerged as interim national officers of the yet-to-be registered All Progressives Congress, APC, a merger of some opposition political parties.
While Mr. Masari from Katsina State will serve as Deputy National Chairman, Mr. el-Rufai, an indigene of Kaduna State, will serve as Deputy National Secretary. The names of both chieftains of the Congress for Progressives Change, CPC, have been forwarded to the Joint Inter-Party Merger Committee, JIMC, which will submit them to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Other nominees from CPC, according to the list we obtained are Sadiya Farouq from Zamfara State as National Treasurer; Sharoon from Anambra State as National Women Leader; A. Lado from Niger State as National Youth Leader; Aboki, a retired general from Nasarawa State as National Vice Chairman, North Central; James Ocholi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria from Kogi State as Deputy Legal Adviser; Bala Jibrin from Bauchi State as Deputy National Auditor; and Muse from Lagos State as ex-officio member.
Already, Bisi Akande, the National Chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has since emerged as the National Chairman of APC with the National Secretary of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, Tijjani Tumsah, as the National Secretary.Other slots given to the ACN, apart from the position of the National Chairman are National Legal Adviser, Deputy National Treasurer, National Publicity Secretary, Deputy National Youth Leader, two vice chairmanship seat and two ex-officio members.
Although, it could not be confirmed immediately, there are indications that the current ACN National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, has been picked to play that same role in the APC.In a chat with journalists on Monday night in Abuja, the Chairman of the ANPP Board of Trustees and former Borno State Governor, Ali Modu Sheriff, confirmed that Mr. Akande had been picked as the interim national chairman of APC, saying the appointment was a consensus decision among the merging parties.
Apart from producing the National Secretary,ANPP will also produce the National Financial Secretary, Deputy National Organising Secretary, Deputy National Publicity Secretary, two vice chairmen and two ex-officio officers.The National Executive Committee, NEC, of the ANPP, at its meeting, last weekend, set up a committee to select the occupants of the positions ceded to the party by the merger committee.
Other parties in the merger, namely the Democratic Peoples Party, DPP, and a section of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, were also given slots in the National Working Committee, NWC.The positions of National Organising Secretary; Deputy National Chairman, South; Deputy National Financial Secretary, Deputy National Women Leader; one vice chairman and one-ex-officio were given to APGA.
DPP will produce the positions of National Auditor and Deputy National Secretary.The parties announced their plan to merge on February 6 and formally applied to INEC for registration on June 6.The national chairmen, national secretaries and national treasurers of ACN, ANPP and CPC signed the application for registration in line with Section 84 (3) of the Electoral Act, 2010 (amended).
INEC had also directed the association to set up a national executive as part of its registration process.
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