By Stanley Nwanosike
Foundation members of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu State have sent a “Save Our Soul“ (SOS) message to President Muhammadu Buhari over the alleged hijack of the party by members who joined recently.
The state APC Publicity Secretary, Mrs Kate Ofor, disclosed this while speaking to journalists in Enugu on Sunday after a zoom meeting of the party faithful.
Ofor said that the party faithful had resolved to call Buhari’s attention to the activities of recent“ joiners“ who wanted to shut out APC foundation/legacy members from the party.
She said: “Foundation members of APC in Enugu State have gradually improved the electoral fortunes of our great party from 2015 to 2019 general elections.
“We need to improve more, especially with the registration of new members.
“However, we wish to appeal that the flagrant breach of Article 20 of the APC Constitution by some recent joiners to the party and their imposition of party officials called “consensus“ be urgently addressed before the Oct. 2, 2021 State Congress’’.
According to her, the core resolution in the meeting is to call on the president, who is the leader of the great party, to Save Our Soul (SOS).
Asked why there is no problem in the other South-Eastern states, Ofor said: “I don’t know. The danger is that we are in liberal democracy where some might keep quiet but their marginalised members’ votes may not.
“This is why we are calling on President Buhari to come to our rescue.
“His Excellency, M. M. Buni as a foundation/legacy member knows how we toiled, sweated and sacrificed to build the APC brand”.
Asked about the Reconciliation Committee headed by Sen. Adamu Abdullahi, Ofor noted that the foundation members had nothing against him.
She, however, said that “there is a big elephant in the committee from the state planted by the recent joiners to execute their intentions’’.
The APC publicity secretary said: We resolved for the purposes of the state congress to clarify the position we took in June with the Sen. Jonathan Zwingina-led Registration and Revalidation Panel.
“We hereby clarify that all party offices zoned to the East Senatorial District is now zoned to West Senatorial District, all party offices zoned to the West is now zoned to the North Senatorial District and all those zoned to North is now zoned to East Senatorial District.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that in 2014, Enugu North Senatorial zone got the positions of legal adviser, financial secretary, secretary, and youth leader.
Assistant publicity secretary, assistant auditor, assistant organizing secretary, ex-officio, ex-officio and gubernatorial candidate were also zoned to it
For Enugu East Senatorial zone, it got chairman, assistant women leader, assistant treasurer, welfare secretary, assistant secretary, ex-officio, organising secretary and assistant youth leader.
For Enugu West Senatorial zone, it was allocated deputy chairman, treasurer, publicity secretary, auditor, assistant welfare secretary and special leader.
It was also given assistant legal adviser, ex-officio, woman leader, national vice chairman, zonal organising secretary and deputy gubernatorial candidate.