Culled from Punch
National Chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Chief Bisi Akande, and Chief Tom Ikimi are currently locked in the battle for the chairmanship of the All Progressives Party, findings by The PUNCH on Monday have revealed.
The battle to head the yet-to-be-registered merger party between Akande and Ikimi followed the ceding of the interim national chairmanship to the ACN by the stakeholders.
Curiously too, same scenario on Monday obtained in the Congress for Progressive Change, a major arm of the merger and to which the post of the National Secretary of the APC has been zoned.
A source at the top hierarchy of the APC who spoke to our correspondent on Monday night said the self-interest factor had set into the affairs of the new party which is set to announce its Interim Executive Committee on Tuesday (today).
The nine-member IEC will manage the affairs of the party till its registration by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The source said, “As you already know, the APC chairmanship has been ceded to the ACN, the CPC is to produce secretary while the ANPP will produce the treasurer when the party eventually gets registered.
“We are first of all human beings and there are of course interests. For the ACN, where the chairmanship was given, there are issues because two of their leading figures, Chief Tom Ikimi, who has been a visible member of the party’s merger committee, and Bisi Akande have shown interest.”
For the CPC, the source said, “It is not different. Its members too are having their own issues because the current National Secretary of the Party, Alhaji Buba Galadima, and an equally strong member of the party, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, as well as the party’s Publicity Secretary, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin are also interested.
“We’ve not heard much from the ANPP on who they are putting forward as treasurer.”
According to the informed insider, internal wrangling among the three merging political parties is largely responsible for the decision by the leadership of APC to settle for an interim executive committee to pursue the registration of the party.
The source said, “You will agree with me that we can do with less of this distraction for now.”
Our correspondent gathered after the party had been registered, an Interim Management Committee would replace the IEC.
National Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said he was not aware that Akande and Ikimi were contending for the chairmanship slot of the APC
But when contacted, National P