The presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu is reportedly planning to include additional 2000 members to his Presidential Campaign Council.
Tinubu had recently unveiled a 422-member campaign council, but according to reports, some governors and the National Chairman of the APC, Adamu Abdullahi were not satisfied with the list.
The conflict over the list was confirmed by a letter purportedly written to Tinubu by Adamu on Thursday, September 29, 2022.
In the letter, Adamu allegedly accused Tinubu of sidelining the party’s National Working Committee in the appointment of the campaign council.
He said the list was not a reflection of the principles and purposes of the arrangements between him and Tinubu.
The list did not also go down well with Governors Ben Ayade of Cross Rivers State and AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State.
The governors according to The Punch were said to have expressed shock over the exclusion of their nominees after their efforts to identify potential candidates who could mobilise support and deliver votes for Tinubu and the APC in the 2023 polls.
The governors were said to have reported their grievance to Adamu and the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum and Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu.
Members of the NWC have also disowned the PCC list, saying Tinubu, who is currently out of the country did not allow them to properly vet the names before he made the premature announcement.
APC has dismissed the perceived rancor between Adamu and Tinubu over the presidential campaign council list.
Following reports on Adamu’s allegation against Tinubu over the list, the ruling party in a statement on Thursday said the letter did not emanate from the party.
The APC said Adamu and Tinubu have effective channels of communication, adding that the letter which it described as an ‘unsigned draft’ cannot be attributed to the chairman of the party.
The ruling party said it won’t be distracted by the wishes of detractors who are gleefully waiting for a crisis to erupt between the party and the presidential campaign council.
However, the spokesperson for the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo has maintained that the PCC list Tinubu released on Friday, September 23, 2022, was inconclusive.
When asked what effort the party and its presidential candidate are making to address grievances about the PCC list, Keyamo said a supplementary list of over 2,000 ‘membership cadre’ is on the way.
“All their nominees will be included. The list was released in two parts. The one we released was the first one. In the coming days, more than 2,000 additional names will be released,” he said.
Keyamo also dismissed the report on the claim by the NWC members that they were not allowed to vet the PCC list before it was released to the public.
The lawyer said there was no iota of truth in the report, adding that there was a proper synergy between the candidate and the NWC.
