*BY CONSTANCE IGWE, ABUJA*
Feelers have emerged that a Presidential Panel was constituted to look into issues that arose over the governorship primary of the All Progressive Congress, APC in Imo State.
Other States the Committee looked into are Ogun State and other states the party primaries were troublesome which has pitied some State Governors against the National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomole.
The move, it was gathered is aimed at averting possible defections of some State Governors to other political parties just as newspaper reports on Sunday revealed that top leaders of the APC will meet in Abuja look at candidates fielded for the elections.
The Committee approved by President Muhammadu Buhari is reported to have the Minister of Education, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation and Chief of Staff in the Presidency.
Imo State APC has been on fire lately as Governor Rochas Okorocha is bent on ensuring that his son in law and former Chief of Staff, Uche Nwosu picks the party’s governorship ticket.
Concerns have been raised that the Imo Governor may dump the APC if his choice candidate does not scale through the hurdle and this is said to be worrisome to the Committee on the grounds that the Imo State Governor is one of the arrow heads of the APC in the South East, a region that has shown so much apathy at the party.
Another source said the Tuesday meeting will address these issues including that of other States where State Governors are battling to have their way in ensuring their candidates pick the governorship ticket.
Last week, the situation in Imo APC reached a head when some party members loyal to the Okorocha camp staged a protest in Owerri, Imo State capital to kick against imposition of candidates through the party’s substitution window.
Some of the Governors loyalists namely Hon Simeon Iwunze, Hon Kingsley Uju, Mr.Paschal Obi and Prof Nnamdi Obiareri were dropped and replaced with candidates in the Imo APC Coalition, a group of politicians in the party horizontally and vertically opposed to the Governor’s choice of his son in law as his sucessor.
The source said ” Imo State is one of the States that has attracted so much concern and we must not allow the State to slip away from the APC. The Tuesday meeting will look at so many issues that arose after the primary not just in Imo but in other States where we have strong foothold”
A Nigerian daily on Sunday collaborated this newspaper report when it said President Buhari is bent on averting mass defections in the party thus the need for the Tuesday NEC meeting where all issues concerning primaries in troubled APC States will be addressed.
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