The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has warned leaders of the All Progressives Congress at both national and state levels against factions and imposing unpopular candidates as the 2023 general election approaches.
The president gave the warning at the 11th meeting of the National Executive Committee of the All Progressives Congress on Wednesday in Abuja.
This is as the party reached agreements on the form it would use to select a presidential candidate and other matters relating to the 2023 general election.
Buhari said, “I enjoin you all to follow due process in all the party processes and more importantly to develop more mechanisms against corruption
“I call on all party members to abide by all extant laws, rules, and regulations and to leaders of our party to avoid the imposition of candidates that cannot win popular elections.
“This dictatorial behaviour cost us many strategic seats in the past. In the recent past, this led to some of our strong members, unfortunately, opting to go elsewhere because of the unfairly oppressive behaviour of party leaders at the state level.
“I must caution strongly against any tendency towards developing cliques, in–fighting within the party.
“We want to win well not succumb to factions on account of personal acerbities and desire to retain control at all costs. That surely is not the road to win,’’ he said.
The National Executive Council of the All Progressives Congress has transferred power to the Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee until July 2022.
The party’s secretary, Dr Iyiola Omisore, disclosed this to delegates at the 11th National Executive Committee meeting of the APC holding at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.
The president also told new members of the National Working Committee, which had been delegated powers of NEC to work towards keeping the party together by creating more room for discussions.
“There’s no time to develop differences among ourselves. We have no time for that,’’ he added.
