ANPP postpones convention for armed forces event
The All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) convention was yesterday shifted till today, Saturday January 14th as the party and the convention committee was prevented from using Eagle Square due to the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration taking place. This is coming on the heels of the failure of the leadership of the party to broker […]
The All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) convention was yesterday shifted till today, Saturday January 14th as the party and the convention committee was prevented from using Eagle Square due to the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration taking place. This is coming on the heels of the failure of the leadership of the party to broker an agreement among the four presidential aspirants for the emergence of a consensus candidate.
The Senator Ahmed Sani-led presidential screening committee has given its nod to the four aspirants, Chief Harry Ayoade Akande, former Chairman Board of Trustees (BOT) of the Party, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, Governor of Kano State, Alhaji Bashir Tofa, the presidential candidate of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) during the 1993 election and Alhaji Dauda Birma, former Education Minister under the regime of late Head of State, General Sani Abacha.
Chief Akande has however insisted on not stepping down for anyone but allow the delegates to vote and make their choice. National Publicity Secretary of the party, Emma Eneukwu, said the ANPP convention committee had long booked for the use of Eagle Square but party officials were prevented from entering the venue on grounds that the place is being used for the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration.
Eneukwu who said government denying them usage of the venue is antics of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to unsettle the ANPP. “We were surprised at the development. Our party has arranged to use Eagle Square and made all necessary documentations to that effect but just this afternoon (yesterday), the authorities asked our workers trying to fix the place for the commencement of the convention to remove their materials to make way for the security personnel.”
Shortly after the presidential screening panel concluded its job, the ANPP leadership convened a meeting of its National Working Committee (NWC) and later at an emergency meeting of the party’s NEC to try to broker a consensus arrangement among the contestants. The NEC meeting that ended late yesterday evening voted to suspend all activities till later today when a venue would have available. It was learnt that efforts to get the aspirants to step-down for each after prolonged negotiations, failed as the aspirants stood their grounds that they are ready to go into a contest.
One of the aspirants, Chief Harry Akande told newsmen yesterday in Abuja that he would not step down for any of the three remaining aspirants. Akande, who stepped down for General Muhammadu Buhari in 2003 and 2007 to enable him (Buhari) emerge as the presidential flag bearer of the ANPP, stressed that he would neither step down nor expect anybody to step down for him this time around and would also not honour any consensus arrangement that the leadership of the party may want to put into place. Another aspirant, Alhaji Dauda Birma said yesterday’s screening will be the third time he will undergo the exercise, the first being in 2003 the second in 2007 while yesterday’s is the third one.