APC Convention: Party Powerbrokers set to change zoning formula

All Progressives Congress (APC) powerbrokers especially the governors who are the major stakeholders will determine the party’s new national chairman, according to a report.

Reliable sources close to party stakeholders said the governors had agreed to work together and reach a consensus on who would pilot the affairs of the party.

One of the governors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “It was a tough decision to sack the NWC led by Oshiomhole. Some governors owe their coming to office to him but some of us believe that we had to take over the party and exert our authority before the party would be finally hijacked by an individual.

“We couldn’t sit by and allow the ambition of a few persons to destabilise the party we all suffered to build. The chairman was unilaterally taking decisions on sensitive issues with a few individuals, even without carrying the President along.

“We could not wait till 2023 before taking a decision. Waiting for long would spell doom for us and the party.”

The source added that the caretaker committee members had been saddled with the responsibility of taking a decision on the zoning formula to be adopted in allocating offices among the six geo-political zones, including whether the next national chairman would still come from the South-South.

Newsmen learnt that while some members of the party would prefer the continuation of the old zoning formula, others had been advocating adjustment.

The source added, “When Chief John Odigie-Oyegun was removed as the national chairman, they brought Oshiomhole from Edo State. But when Otunba Niyi Adebayo from Ekiti State was appointed as a minister, those who want to control the party by force argued that the position of the National Vice Chairman, South, was zoned to the entire South-West and unilaterally appointed the late Senator Abiola Ajimobi from Oyo State. Is that fair? They think we don’t know what we are doing?”