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8,000 delegates for APC national conventionShifts venue to Lagos
FROM IHEANACHO NWOSU,ABUJA
A total of 8,000 delegates made up of statutory and elected, will participate in the national convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) slated for December 10 in Lagos, it was announced yesterday.
This is even as the party said the event which will produce the presidential candidate, will now hold at the Teslim Balogun Stadium Surulere, Lagos and not Eagles Square, Abuja .
Four of the five presidential aspirants had last weekend petitioned the National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, kicking against the holding of the convention in Lagos. The aspirants -former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Kano State Governor, Dr Rabiu Kwankwaso, his Imo State counterpart, Owelle Rochas Okorocha and Publisher of Leadership newspapers, Mr Sam Nda-Isiah, recommended that the venue be moved to Benin or be retained in Abuja.
However, briefing newsmen yesterday, former governor of Ekiti State and Chairman of the Convention Committee, Dr Kayode Fayemi, announced that the event will now take place in Lagos.
He did not offer reason for shifting the venue from Eagles Square, Abuja, which the party paid for, to Teslim Balogun Stadium.
The aspirants are former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku, Kwankwaso, Okorocha and Nda-Isaiah.
Dismissing claims that the aspirants were not in support of the Lagos venue, Fayemi said the relocation was done with the consent of the contenders.
He assured that APC would make the exercise live up to the expectation of Nigerians by ensuring that it is transparent and fraud-free.
According to him, the convention will be watched live on television.
He said: “As you’re already aware, our convention takes place on December 10 and 11, 2014 and the venue of our convention is Lagos State at the Teslim Balogun Stadium. And we have this morning briefed all the presidential aspirants on the steps that we have taken to ensure that we have hitch-free, secure, transparent and credible presidential primaries.”
Emphasizing that the exercise will be a model for other political parties, Fayemi said: “We are not going into coronation. We are going into an election and that election will be done in the full glare of all Nigerians. And those who are not opportuned to be there as delegates but are interested in rescuing democracy in this country, would have the opportunity to watch it live on television stations or to listen to radio station, to follow us online and to even be part of this internationally for those who are not in Nigeria.
“All our aspirants have also been briefed on the various steps we’ve taken. Our committee is having our last meeting in Abuja today and we are relocating to the venue of the convention from this moment.”
On the number of delegates, he replied:”We are expecting over 8,000, both elected and statutorily delegates.
“We have not taken any decision without the input of all the presidential aspirants. I can assure you of that. We did not arrive at Lagos State accidentally. We did not arrive at Lagos serendipitously. We arrived at Lagos with the full input of all our presidential aspirants, yes, concerns were raised about the distance, for example, someone coming from Yobe State as a delegate or from Maiduguri State.
“It’s a practical issue and I would have been surprised if our aspirants did not raise such issue. The duty that I have is to convince them and explain to them the processes we have put in place. They were happy and they have given us full co-operation that Lagos State is acceptable,” Fayemi noted.
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