2023: Buhari, others to determine our zoning arrangement – APC

President Muhammadu Buhari and other top shots will in due time determine the zoning arrangement of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 general elections, the caretaker committee of the party said on Wednesday.

There have been issues over the zoning arrangement of the party. While some of its chieftains, including the minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, are insisting that there was a zoning agreement, others are saying there was none.

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The dust over the issues has continued to gather as the second term of President Buhari lapses on May 29, 2023.

Daily Trust reports that the national convention of the party, where a decision on the zoning is expected to be taken, has been fixed for June this year. But before then, a deep crack has been created in the party.

Yesterday, a list announcing the zoning of positions of the party ahead of the 2023 elections trended on social media.

The national caretaker committee of the party, however, disowned the zoning list in circulation, saying it is yet to zone its offices ahead of the forthcoming national convention.

The list in circulation indicated that the APC has zoned its 2023 presidential ticket to the South and chairmanship to the North, among others.

Secretary of the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe in a statement on Wednesday described the list as the handiwork of speculators who are interested in running for various offices.

“People who are interested in running for one office or the other can speculate. As far as I am concerned, at the last caretaker committee meeting we had, we did not discuss that. That is not what we are concerned with now. What we are concerned with is data collection; how to collect data without making mistake.

“We are not going to be pressurised because of sentiment and we do the wrong thing. Let me say that zoning is not for the caretaker committee alone. It has to do with the President, it has to do with other major stakeholders, and it has to do with a lot of people.

“I want to mute the speculation. The list is not from us (caretaker committee). The President is not in town. There is no way such decision will be taken without consulting with the President, consulting with the governors and other major stakeholders,” he said.