South-West politicians from the Congress for Progressive Change bloc in the All Progressives Congress are set to lose out at the national convention following their rejection by governors in the region.
The defunct CPC bloc is made up of politicians, who joined Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) to merge with the Action Congress of Nigeria to form the APC in 2013 before he won the 2015 presidential election.
It was learnt that a former Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, who is running for the national secretary of the APC; and the Executive Director, Niger Delta Power Holding, Ife Oyedele, were being resisted by the APC governors in the South-West.
It was also learnt that a former Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Iyiola Omisore, might be endorsed as the national secretary ahead of a former Oyo State Commissioner for Finance, Zacceus Adedeji.
Also, Dayo Israel was tipped to emerge as the national youth leader of the APC. Sources said that the unity list of the South-West governors was expected to be released in the coming days.
A top source in the APC said, “There are attempts by some people in Abuja to impose some of the CPC elements on the South-West. Let me restate that the governors are the leaders of the party. We have met and have micro-zoned the positions given to our region.
“We will not tolerate any interference from outside. Shittu, Oyedele and others have lost out completely.”
In a statement on Sunday, Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, who is also the Chairman, South-West Governors’ Forum, said the governors had agreed on micro-zoning, adding that those scheming from outside the region were only trying to cause confusion.
Akeredolu said in the statement titled, ‘External forces trying to impose persons on South-West’, that a former Chairman of the APC in the state, Isaac Kekemeke, had been endorsed as the national vice chairman for the South-West.
The statement by the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo, stated that all the governors of the South-West had endorsed Kekemeke.
It read in part, “This is to confirm that one of our own, the former APC state chairman, Duerimini Isaac Kekemeke, is in the race for the position of the National Vice-Chairman (South-West). Kekemeke has the full backing of Governor Akeredolu and his brother governors in the South-West.
“It should be noted that critical stakeholders in the South-West had earlier micro-zoned the positions that were brought to the region. Among these were the national vice-chairman, which was retained in Ondo, and the secretary, which was micro-zoned to the Oyo/Osun axis.
“For emphasis, what we are going for is national vice-chairman with Kekemeke as our candidate, and not national secretary. Those outside the South-West, who are attempting to micro-zone our offices for us in the South-West, are only creating unnecessary confusion and any such of their permutations outside the decision of stakeholders in the South-West should be ignored.”
