National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie Oyegun has said the party was not involved in the final compilation of the list of Board appointees recently released by the federal government.
Oyegun who spoke at a dinner for journalists in his residence said even though the party was involved in the initial compilation of the list, it was not involved in the process of vetting the list before it was made public.
According to him, the party would have insisted that a proper check be carried out before the list is made public if given the opportunity to do so.
He said that at the inception, the party asked for the nomination of 50 people from each state and the list was submitted to the Presidential committee.
“We have followed the issue of board appointments and I think that issue has raised a lot controversy already. The only thing I want to add is that it is pretty obvious that the party was not involved in the final stages of the compilation of that list.
“Yes, we sent at the initial stage and I am talking of a period of two years ago. We demanded for every state to make 50 nominations which were sent to the committee in charge of the list for the purpose. They completed the initial exercise that time but since then a lot has happened.
“People have changed parties, people have died, we have three new governors that were not there when the list was compiled. Therefore it was clear that there was obvious need for us to look at the final outcome of the exercise.
“But we are not fortunate to participate in that final stage otherwise it is quite clear such would not have occurred. It is my sincere hope that we will be fully involved in the review that has to now take place and any other exercise moving forward from this date,” he noted.
The party pointed out that considering the fact that this year will be the build up to the 2019 general election, it will start preparing for the exercise.
“I will resume on Monday and we are going to hit ground running. We all know that this year is obviously going to an active year for elections.”
The dead nominees include Senator Francis Okpozo, who passed on at 81 in 2016 but was named Chairman, Nigerian Press Council (NPC); Deputy Inspector General of Police and elder statesman, Donald Ugbaja (retd), appointed member of Consumer Protection Council and the founder of Fidei Polytechnic, Very Rev Fr Christopher Utov appointed a member of the board of the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research.
Fr. Utov was until his death, the proprietor of Fidei Polytechnic in Gboko, Benue State, the first private polytechnic in northern Nigeria. He died on March 17, 2017 in India after battling with an undisclosed disease was buried on April 13, this year, in Gboko.
Umar Dange Sokoto, former emir of Katagum in Bauchi state, who died on December 9th, was picked to join the board of the Federal Medical Centre, Azare, also in Bauchi.
Also dead but appointed are Garba Attahiru Kaduna; Dr. Nabbs Igbokwe of Rivers State, Comrade Ahmed Bunza from Kebbi State and Miss Magdalene Kumu from Taraba.
The APC chairman also gave an indication that a new leadership for the party will emerge before the end of June 2018, with the process beginning soon with the National Caucus and National Executive Committee meeting, culminating in the national convention.
Oyegun said the NEC which is expected to hold either before the end of January or early February will fix the date for the elective national convention which is expected to produce a new leadership for the party.
