APC meets tomorrow over sharing formula

ABUJA—ALL Progressives Congress, APC, Merger Committee will meet tomorrow to consider allocation of offices among various political parties that merged to become the mega party. At the meeting to be held in Abuja, the committee will also produce the party’s logo, as well as draft the constitution and its manifesto.
The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA and the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, had last week announced merger to form the APC.
The merger committee was given about six weeks to consider the merger agreement, design the logo of the new party, draft the constitution and the manifesto of the party.
A source close to the committee told Vanguard that the individual political parties were asked to submit names of their members that will make the committees to be constituted as well as the national officers.
According to the source, the parties that made up the merger will file candidates to contest the Abuja Municipal Area Council elections expected to hold later this month if the proposal to INEC for the registration of the merger name was not ratified before the election.
The APGA controversy
Commenting on the controversy in APGA, he said that there was no problem with the party as according to him Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and the National Executive Committee of the party endorsed the merger.
He said: ‘Anybody who feels he does not agree with them is in the minority. A party is a voluntary association, it therefore means that when the majority has decided you have to key in, if you don’t want to key in, you leave the party, it is not compulsory that you must remain a member of a party.”
The source alleged that the seeming problem in APGA was caused by Governor Peter Obi whom he accused of being a stooge to President Goodluck Jonathan, adding that Governor Obi was in the minority in the party.
“The majority members of APGA and the National Executive Committee have endorsed the merger and that was why they were represented when we announced the new name of our party. Those against the merger are the PDP people in APGA.”
Suit against Momoh to be withdrawn
In a related development, the faction of Congress for Progressive Change, CPC,  led by Senator Rufai Hanga, has indicated its readiness to withdraw its suit against the Prince Tony Momoh’s leadership of the party and fuse with the newly-formed All Progressive Congress, APC.
As a prelude to mending fences with the leadership of the party, the Sen. Hanga group met for about two hours yesterday, with the leader of the AC N and chieftain of APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in Abuja to sort out issues of common interest to both parties.
Sen. Tinubu met with the Hanga faction of CPC to broker peace between them and the CPC leadership on the platform of sacrificing for the mega party.
According to Hanga, he was ready to make any sacrifice to ensure the success of the  merger of the opposition parties in order to move the political process forward.
He said as a first step, they were ready to withdraw the suit the faction filed against the leadership as soon as possible because they were also part of the merger.
He said the current leadership of CPC would cease to exist as soon as the mega  party takes off.
Vanguard also gathered that he had met earlier with the leader of CPC, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari over the misunderstanding within the party, on how to resolve it and move the merger talks forward.
Vanguard gathered that Tinubu had earlier met with the leader of CPC, Gen MuhammaduBuhari over the misunderstanding within the party during which they suggested ways and means of resolving them.
The Hanga-led faction had challenged, in court, the legality of the election that brought the leadership of the party, led by its Chairman, Prince Tony Momoh.
He has been parading himself as the defacto chairman of the party, having been given recognition by the  Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.