By Emmanuel Mogbede
Senator John Akpanudoedehe, National Secretary, All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker and Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) has denied resigning from the position.
Akpanudoedehe said this when he spoke with newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja at the party’s national secretariat, saying that he remained the national secretary of the APC CECPC.
“I have read in the social media that I have resigned as secretary of the APC CECPC, I want to state that it is not true. I didn’t resign.
“If I have resigned, you would have seen my letter of resignation written by me. Someone cannot just say somebody is dead when he is alive.
“I am not bigger than the party, or bigger than the president who is a leader of the country.
“I am waiting for the chairman, if we have directives from the president that we should resign, we are not bigger than the president, we will do so, if we hear from him,” Akpanudoedehe said.
He said that reports indicating that he had resigned his position as secretary of the APC CECPC were fake news.
Akpanudoedehe also faulted reports that he had been asked to resign by President Muhammadu Buhari saying it was untrue.
“Someone cannot say the president said. I have not receive any letter from anywhere,” he said.
He said that the CECPC under Gov. Mai Mala Buni had done so much for the APC since it was inaugurated on June 25, 2020.
This, he said, included registering 41 million party members and paying for the party’s national secretariat in Wuse 11, Abuja.
“We have done reconciliation of aggrieved party members, ward, local government and state congresses, and we are about to do the National Convention.
“And you will agree with me that when we came in, this place was like a dead zone, the secretariat was moved to a private house, but we were committed to what we were doing,” he said.
Also speaking Gov. Sani Bello of Niger said that the party would soon release the zoning list for the March 26 national convention, adding that the report on the zoning formula had been adopted by the party’s leadership.
Bello who spoke with newsmen after a closed door meeting with members of the APC CECPC, said he would meet with the committee daily, until the party’s national convention.
This, he said, was critical to put things together ahead of the March 26 convention.
“Basically, today we looked at the convention sub-committee and we collected some of the reports from the committee, hoping that tomorrow we will decide on the next step to take.
“Nothing much happened today,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Gov. Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara submitted the zoning formula report to Bello on Monday.
Bello described the zoning system as a representation of fairness and equity in the party.
“The report of the zoning formula has been submitted and adopted and it will be released any moment from now. I mean the zoning formula.
“Hopefully, by next week, the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting will hold,” Bello said.
(NAN)