Delegates, APC Ad hoc Officials Clash As Accreditation Begins

Delegates and some ad hoc officials of the All Progressives Congress clashed at the venue of the party’s national convention on Tuesday.

However, accreditation has begun after the resolution of the misunderstanding.

It was learnt that delegates are expected to be issued accreditation tags before proceeding to Eagle Square, the venue of the primary.

The PUNCH had reported an attempt by the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Adamu, to select Senate President Ahmad Lawan – a northerner – as the preferred candidate of the APC, failed on Monday as both the Presidency and 12 northern governors of the party openly distanced themselves from the move.

Adamu had summoned a meeting of the 25-member National Working Committee at the party’s headquarters in Abuja ahead of the presidential primary slated for Tuesday (today).

At the meeting, Adamu informed the NWC that Lawan was the anointed candidate of the party, a move which was not accepted by all of the members.

It was gathered that the national chairman insisted the choice of Lawan was arrived at after due consultation with the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

After the meeting, Adamu hurriedly jumped into his vehicle and zoomed off.

The APC’s stand on Monday threatened the hope of the South to produce the next president as a northerner, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, on May 28 got the presidential ticket of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party after defeating southern aspirants including the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, and the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel.

But northern governors in the APC, at their meeting on Saturday night, raised the hope of the South when they insisted that the presidential candidate of the party should emerge from the southern part of the country.

Adamu’s plot to impose Lawan was on Monday greeted by a groundswell of opposition from some NWC members, northern governors and other presidential aspirants.

Moments after the NWC meeting,  about seven members led by the National Organising Secretary of the APC, Suleman Argungu, told journalists at the party secretariat that Lawan was not the preferred candidate of the party.