The Director-General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) and Governor of Plateau State, Dr. Simon Lalong, on Friday, doused tension brewing among party supporters when he announced that members who didnt make the PCC list have big roles to play at the regional, zonal and grassroots level.
Lalong made the clarification at the unveiling of the Action Plan and PCC inauguration at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja. The development is coming barely 24 hours after the APC released a fresh PPC list on Wednesday to replace the previous 422-man team.
There were however few surprises on the harmonised list, which saw the National Chairman of the party, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, rise to the number two position on the campaign list, just below the President, Muhammadu Buhari, who retains his position as the Chairman of the PCC.
In the same list, the names of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo; former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal; former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria, (VON), Osita Okechukwu, were conspicuously missing again.
More surprising were earlier names such as Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige; embattled Senator of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chimaroke Nnamani; Minister of Interior, Ra’uf Aregbesola and former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, who were excluded from the fresh list. Their exclusion set social media agog and got Nigerians asking questions about why they were suddenly excluded.
There were new additions, like Juju maestro, Sir Shina Peters, in Creative Arts; Tinubus running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima; Dr. Mahmood Ahmed, and Imman Ibrahim were drafted into Fund Raising Directorate, while a war veteran, Major-Gen. Cecil Esekhaigbe completed the Intelligence and Security Directorate.
Recall that midway through his speech at Fridays PCC inauguration, Lalong announced to the audience that the majority of members and party supporters who were dropped from the campaign list were given different roles to play at regional, zonal, States, local government areas, ward and unit levels.
While appealing to aggrieved members to remain calm and support the party, the Plateau State governor disclosed that the PCC composition involved a lot of consultations to ensure the party has a robust team that will capture all stakeholders.
Efforts made to reach the Chief Spokesman of the APC Presidential Campaign, Festus Keyamo; National Publicity Secretary of the party, Felix Morka and PCC Director of Media and Communications, Bayo Onanuga, proved abortive.
As of the time of filing this report, they neither picked up the calls nor replied to the text messages sent to them.
