Opposition Parties Agree on APC Interim Leadership

ACN gets chairmanship, six other positions, ANPP given six slots, six too for CPC

The opposition parties coalition  Tuesday took steps to finally resolve their differences over the constitution of the leadership of the yet -to-be registered All Progressives Congress (APC).

The parties were forced to settle the matter following the refusal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept just the three interim officers of national chairman, secretary and treasurer  they had put together as key leaders of the APC interim management committee.

After series of consultations, they have now agreed to a sharing formula, which will cede the national chairmanship position to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), in addition to six other offices.

The All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) gets the national secretary and five other slots.
On its part, the Congress for Progressive Change ( CPC), the third major partner in the coalition, has been given the position of national treasurer in addition to five other positions in the new party's national executive.

The coalition also accommodated the interests of factions of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA)  and the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), which are part of the coalition by granting the duo, eight slots.

Among the offices to be filled by the factional groups are the deputy national chairman, deputy organising secretary and the national youth leader.

THISDAY gathered that the merging parties at a caucus meeting last night, resolved that with the final agreement on the sharing of party offices, it was no longer necessary to continue to have the merger committees in place.  The parties have therefore proposed a dissolution of the committees.

It was also learnt that the leadership of the merging parties would prepare a list of candidates to fill the positions allocated them for final consideration and ratification today.

The parties had earlier yesterday engaged in a series of meetings and consultations to resolve the issues over the sharing of interim party positions.
This followed the refusal of INEC  to accept just the composition of the interim management committee.

As part of a tactical move to  resolve a brewing conflict over the formation of an interim leadership structure for the APC, the coalition had decided  that the ACN National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande; ANPP National Secretary, Alhaji Musa Tumnsa and CPC  National Treasurer,  Sadiat Farouk, are to act as chairman, secretary and treasurer respectively of the APC  party's interim management committee.

However, THISDAY gathered that instead, INEC asked the merging parties to ensure that their application form for APC registration is accompanied with the full list of the interim national officers of the proposed party.

According to a source, what the commission is demanding is that apart from having the national chairman, national secretary and treasurer in place, the parties must also appoint deputies and other national officers before they can apply for APC registration.
In order to resolve the matter,  the joint merger committee for APC met and upheld the choice of the three interim officers and also suggested ways of expanding the interim management committee to accommodate more positions.

The Chairman of ACN merger committee, Chief Tom Ikimi, had told reporters after the joint merger committee's meeting at his residence in Abuja yesterday that the committee was trying to accommodate every interests in the formation of the leadership structure.
THISDAY however learnt that following the draft agreement reached at the merging committee's meeting, the parties have decided to hold caucus meetings to approve the