The Caretaker Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), in Lagos State, Tunde Balogun, has disclosed that the founding fathers of the party had an agreement in 2014 that the South-West geopolitical zone will produce the partys presidential candidate for the 2023 election.
He said it would be dishonourable for the party to jettison the agreement now, adding that President Muhammadu Buhari, the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and many other persons made the gentlemans agreement.
There have been insinuations among some party members and chieftains that the resolutions of the National Executive Committee meeting, presided over by Buhari on Tuesday, was a ploy by some party chieftains to hijack the control of the party for personal interest, including scheming towards 2023.
The NEC approved the extension of the six-month tenure of the Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker/Extraordinary National Convention Planning Committee for another six months. It also approved the immediate dissolution of the party organs at the polling units, wards, local government, states and zonal levels as well as the non National Working Committee component of the National Executive Committee.
It thereafter approved their immediate reconstitution and composition of the dissolved excos to serve in their respective offices in a caretaker committee capacity, excluding the non-NWC members of NEC.
But speaking at the weekend,, Balogun said, In 2014, the founding fathers of APC had a gentlemans agreement and they committed themselves to the agreement. The party was victorious because they honoured the agreement they made and everyone worked together for the party in 2015 and 2019.
Baloguns revelation came as a fresh twist to the raging debate over where the ruling party would zone the presidential ticket ahead of the 2023 election.
Meanwhile, some top APC members believed to be loyal to Tinubu, have also faulted some of the resolutions of the NEC, saying it was a ploy to frustrate Tinubus perceived presidential ambition. Even though Tinubu has yet to declare his intention to run, insinuations are rife that he might contest the partys ticket for the election.
Spokesperson for aggrieved members of the APC, under the aegis of ‘Concerned APC members’, Abdullahi Dauda, described the dissolution of elected party executives as illegal, noting that it was a ploy to influence the partys candidates in 2023 general elections.
