The Delta All Progressives Congress (APC) Leaders’ Council, has called on the party’s Caretaker and Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) to cancel the recently held Ward and Local Government Area (LGA) Congresses in the state.
The council made the call in a communique made available to newsmen Sunday in Abuja, adding that a fresh all-inclusive Ward and LGA Congresses should be organised in the state.
According to the communique, the council took the decision to call for fresh Congresses in Delta, at its recent expanded meeting which was also attended by some members of the State Working Committee.
It added that Congresses were not an end in itself, but an avenue to engender cohesion, inclusiveness and growth in the party, through the popular election of party leaders, or the consensual production of its functionaries.
The communique was jointly signed by the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, who is also the Chairman of the Council, Festus Keyamo, its Co-Chairman Dr Alex Ideh and the Secretary of the council Dr Cairo Ojougboh, respectively.
Other signatories are Chief Great Ogboru, 2019 APC Delta Governorship Candidate, Mr Victor Ochei, former Speaker, Delta House of Assembly, Mrs Mariam Ali and Monday Igbuya, former Speaker, Delta House of Assembly.
Mr Richard Odibo. Federal Commissioner, National Population Commission, Terry Okorodudu, leader APC Delta South, Dr Eugene Okolocha, and Joel-Onowakpo Thomas were also part of those that signed the communique among others.
According to the communique, various issues of great and urgent concerns were exhaustively debated at the meeting which arrived at a collective decision.
“Whereupon, the following resolutions were collectively reached and are hereby issued as a communique. We state and affirm here that there was no acceptable congress in Delta APC.
“We have previously heard through the grapevine that the entire state structure would be taken by an agent of the CECPC and that we can complain to it or go to court.
“The reasons for such grandstanding and boastfulness are now clear for all to see. The CECPC may have been misled, but we believe that justice will eventually prevail and they cannot befuddle the people of Delta,” it said.
The party leaders said Delta APC was not the personal property of any person, and would never be.
It recalled that the foundation and fulcrum of the APC were laid and built on integrity and progressive politics which President Muhammadu Buhari epitomised.
It added that the APC CECPC could not divorce itself from these tenets of democracy.
“Accordingly, we call on the CECPC to annul whatever it may be regarding as Ward and LGA congresses in Delta State, and organise fresh, all-inclusive Congresses.
“This is the irreducible minimum for the teeming members of our party to work with the CECPC to take our party forward,” it said.
The council, however, called on all party faithfuls, especially in Delta, to remain steadfast and patient in the face of brazen acts of injustice, provocation and undemocratic practices.
It assured that it would work to enthrone justice and fairness in the state to ensure equity for all members.
On zoning of the state party offices, it said zoning must be based on a clear understanding of the polity and firm endorsement of the relevant party leadership.
It added that it was the height of arbitrariness and arrogance for one person to claim to have zoned the party positions for the whole state ahead of the State Congress.
“Expectedly, this was outrightly and overwhelmingly rejected.
“To carry the insult further, the same person, in acknowledgement of the perversive rejection of his proposal, subsequently claimed to have personally set up a committee to review his own proposal.
“This clique of personal loyalists he calls a Review Committee is only meant to perfect his premeditated agendum of foisting a leadership on the State. We reject all these in their entirety,” the council said.
