Leadership crisis: APC has barred itself from contesting elections – PDP

Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has barred itself from contesting the elections due to the leadership crisis rocking the party.

The PDP said by virtue of Section 183 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) which bars a sitting governor from holding “any other executive office in any capacity whatsoever” while serving as a State Governor, the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) headed by a state Governor has disqualified the party.

In a statement by Debo Ologunagba, National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, cautioned those angling for positions in the 2023 general elections “that APC is legally defunct, structurally crippled and no longer a legitimate and valid vehicle to field candidates for elections under our extant laws.”

The party also said the unilateral dismissal and replacement of Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni with his Niger State counterpart, Abubakar Sani Bello, as Chairman of the CECPC confirms that the committee is an illegal creation that lacks statutory powers and legitimacy.

PDP said since December 8, 2020 when the APC dissolved its national, state as well as local government structures and handed its affairs over to a team of “political undertakers” known as the CECPC it stopped being a political party.

The statement further said, “with the absence of a National Working Committee (NWC), National Executive Committee (NEC), a Board of Trustees (BoT) or legitimate structures in the States, the APC is plagued by confusion and fierce infighting by its various warlords with two National Chairmen, multiple factions in the States and a national secretariat now taken over by security agencies.

“The PDP draws the attention of intending aspirants on the platform of the APC to the fact that the CECPC has no statutory authority under the law and that any State Congress or National Convention conducted by it to produce any party leadership at any level remains invalid and unrecognized by law.

“Consequently, any Governorship, State Assembly, National Assembly as well as Presidential Primary election conducted by any leadership produced by the illegal CECPC can only produce invalid candidates just like in the case of Zamfara and Rivers States in the 2019 general elections where the APC had invalid candidates due to defective primaries.

“Our Party therefore urges aspirants intending to contest in the 2023 general elections under the APC as well as their supporters to read the hand writing on the wall and not waste their resources, time and energy in the APC.”