The Abdullahi Ganduje-led All Progressives Congress has begun consultation to fill vacant offices in the National Working Committee by seeking the nod of the party’s National Executive Committee to ratify the new officers.
The move became necessary after the ruling party received the list of nominations from state party chapters in line with the mandate given to the NWC at the last NEC meeting held in Transcorp Hilton in Abuja last week.
Aside from the slots of National Deputy Chairman (North), Senator Abubakar Kyari and National Women Leader, Dr Betta Edu, who had been cleared as ministerial nominees, the positions of former National Vice Chairman (North-West), Mallam Salihu Lukman, and National Legal Adviser, Ahmad El-Marzuq, who recently quit the NWC had also become vacant.
Other vacant positions include Deputy National Publicity Secretary, formerly occupied by Murtala Ajaka, who is running for the office of the governor of Kogi State on the platform of Social Democratic Party, and National Welfare Officer, which was previously occupied by the late Friday Nwosu.
The new officers recommended by the state APC chapters awaiting NEC ratifications are former Cross River State Commissioner for Local Government, Dr. Stella Odey-Ekpo (Women Leader); Borno State APC Chairman, Ali Dalori (Deputy National Chairman, North); ex-Nasarawa State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Abdulkarim Kana (Legal Adviser), former Abia State House of Assembly Speaker Martins Azubuike (Welfare Officer) and ex-Special Adviser on Water Resources to Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Ismail (Deputy National Publicity Secretary).
A source in the party said, “Although the name of Lukman’s replacement has yet to be officially sent, we were told Kaduna APC Chairman, Commodore Emmanual Jekada (retd.), is their choice to emerge as the next National Vice Chairman for North-West.
“These are proposed names, but nothing is cast in stone. For now, the names have yet to get the nod of the NWC. We have not discussed them nor submitted them to NEC as a body.”
The top source however ruled out the rumoured return of Ajaka, who resigned from the APC to contest the Kogi governorship on the platform of the SDP.
He also ruled out the possibility of a mini-convention, saying the governing party would officially inaugurate the new officers once it gets the approval of NEC.
The battle to fill the vacant slots in the NWC on Friday assumed another dimension following reports that the Abia APC chapter might have submitted multiple nominees for the position of the National Welfare Officer.
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