Governors and leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in
the South-West are currently strategising on ways to mitigate the
incursion of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate,
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, into the zone ahead of February 16, 2019
election.
New Telegraph gathered that the APC, which is in
control of the six states in the South-West, is frantically pushing to
put the post-primary crisis in some states behind it, come together in
the coming days and eke out a winning strategy that will guarantee the
re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari, ahead of the PDP candidate.
A
leader in the ruling APC, who chose to be anonymous, said: “The Atiku
challenge is real and we can’t afford to take it for granted because
South-West is where the swing votes reside. “As we speak, the signals on
the field are not cheering in almost all the six states of the
South-West and that is why it is necessary for the party and the
presidency to summon everyone and give a marching order on how to
prosecute the elections.
“The reverse in the order of crisis we
are having in the South-West is unfortunate. PDP used to be the party in
crisis before now, but they are gradually shaking off that
nomenclature. Currently, all is not well with our party in Ogun, Ondo,
Lagos, Oyo and perhaps Osun.
“Unfortunately, this division is
beginning to create in-roads for PDP and Atiku in the zone. His offer of
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) has also emboldened
his campaign in the zone.
We can’t afford to sleep on them because
we learnt they are meeting different people and groups in the zone.”
Meanwhile, one of the governors in the APCcontrolled state of the
South-West is said to have warned traditional rulers in his state
against partisan politics, stating that they are royal fathers and not
politicians.
It was gathered that the governor gave the
directive to the traditional rulers following a proposed courtesy visit
of some PDP leaders to select traditional rulers in the South-West next
month.
However, barring any last minute change, leaders of the
PDP in the South- West are set to converge on Lagos today for a
stakehold-ers’ meeting.
Aside from using the meeting to appraise
the reports of primary elections conducted in the zone, the gathering
is expected to chart a course for the 2019 election, appoint campaign
teams and also deliberate on the proposal of Atiku to offer the zone the
SGF slot.
A source within the zonal executive of the party said:
“We are meeting in Lagos on Friday and we will be deliberating on many
crucial matters, including the SGF offer by the presidential candidate.
“I
don’t want to pre-empt the meeting, but I know that the zone will still
demand for more positions from the candidate. We have the second
largest voting population after the North-West and I think that should
be key to any form of negotiation,” he said.
