The internal crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress worsened on Monday with the party’s Youth Wing sacking the Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee.
In a quick reaction, the leadership of the party said the APC Progressive Youth Movement was not a recognized body.
The APC Progressive Youth Movement on Monday handed the CECPC, led by the Yobe State Governor, Mai Male Buni, an ultimatum to pack and go.
The Chairman of the APC-PYM, Mustapha Audu, said: “Today is the day that story of youths are leaders of tomorrow ended. “Today, we are leaders of here and now and we will change Nigeria.
“We have been recognized by Mr. President and by all the members of the party.
“I can tell you that the leaders are currently scrambling and having meeting on how to align with us.
“This Caretaker Committee has sacked the Buni-led caretaker committee and (it) stands dissolved, disbanded and no longer represent the APC members.
“As the new committee, we will take up the monumental task of reconciliation.”
Speaking in Abuja on Monday, Audu gave the party’s national leadership a January 3, 2021 ultimatum to vacate the national secretariat.
He said the group would not only write to the Buni-led committee next week to hand over and vacate the national secretariat, but would also write an audit firm to look into the accounts of the ruling party since the caretaker committee took over last year.
He said: “It is clear that there are issues in our great party and we all know that there are constitutional lacuna we are facing and the opposition is not happy with what is going on.
“The composition of the sacked APC was in clear violation of the party and Nigeria’s constitution, but we have resolved that constitution lacuna and we are no longer unprepared for the 2023 general elections.
“To show you the power of young people, we met just a week ago in Kaduna and fixed our convention for February 2022 only for the governors to assemble in Abuja 24 hours after.
“They went to the President claiming that he had agreed on the same February.
“We met with Mr. President in January and he told us to go all out and change the narrative.
“There is enough problem existing already and majority of it came from the governors.
“In order to fix the problems as youths, we have to stand up bravely and boldly to face the challenges.
“We are going in to reconcile the APC hand-in-hand with party leaders and we are not going to chastise anybody.”
Asked where they would operate from after dissolving the Buni-led Committee, Audu said: “We will be writing formally to the Buni-led caretaker committee next week to tell them to vacant the office for us to occupy.
“We will also demand a handover note, we will also write to PricewaterhouseCoopers to do a thorough audit of the accounts of the APC since June last year when the Buni-led caretaker committee was inaugurated to establish the exact state of things.”
Announcing the zoning of the national leadership to be contested on February 26, 2022, the group disclosed that the North would produce the National Chairman, Deputy National Chairman would be zoned to the South, while the Deputy National Chairman North would be a female.
All the officials, except the Chairman, must be 45 years and below, it said, adding that the zoning of other offices will be as follows: The National Secretary (South), National Legal Adviser (North), National Treasurer, (South), National Financial Secretary, National Organizing Secretary (North) and National Publicity Secretary (South).
But the CECPC has dismissed the purported sack, insisting that it would not join issues with a paid, misguided group.
The party, in a statement by the National Secretary, Caretaker Committee, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, denied knowledge of the existence of the group in the party even as it claimed its borders on treasonable felony.
Akpanudoedehe said in the statement: “We have received several enquiries from the media and concerned APC members on the felonious activities of a purported group parading themselves as Progressive Youth Movement.
“The purported group and membership are unknown to the party, its structure or as a registered support group, hence we completely disown them and cannot account for their activities or join issues with them.
“However laughable, the criminal attempt of the purported group to usurp the leadership of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC now borders on treasonable felony. Relevant security bodies must now check and address their unscrupulous activities.
“The attention the purported group seeks will not be given to them by the party. We can only advise that the general public completely disregard them. Members of this group are not registered members of the APC and are being used by opposition elements and fifth columnists to cause confusion.
“As widely reported, the successful meeting between the APC leadership, Progressive Governors’ Forum and the president produced February 2022 as the timeframe for the party’s national convention. Our focus now is preparing the ground for a rancour-free exercise.”