Convention: APC Confirms June 23 2018

Nigeria’s ruling party, All Progressives Congress(APC) has confirmed June 23rd  2018 as the date set aside for its national Convention, Chairman Media and Publicity sub-committee of the convention and Oyo State Governor, Chief Abiola Ajimobi has said.
In a statement signed and circulated by the Deputy Secretary of the Media and Publicity Sub-committee, Alhaji Ismaila Sani and made available to PRNigeria in Abuja, the Chairman said “the date as you must be aware is now officially the 23rd of June, 2018.
“We would also want Nigerians, who gave us overwhelming support in 2015, to know that in line with our tradition of excellence and transparency, the Convention will be open to all aspirants who are deemed qualified in line with the Convention guidelines, to vie for positions they are interested in”, he said.
The party said the development “is in keeping with our vision of entrenching true democratic ideals, not only in our party but also in our national politics”.
The statement further said that the business of the convention shall be conducted strictly in line with the most sacred democratic principles and the process will be free, fair and credible.
Speaking on the distribution of leadership positions within the party, the chairman said “we have opted to maintain the current zoning arrangement. The purpose of zoning is to ensure equitable representation for the entire country. To this effect, we have also introduced measures to ensure adequate representation for special interest groups such as women, youths and people with disabilities. In fact, we made history by appointing leaders for people with disabilities both in the national leadership of our great party and at zonal and state levels”.
The party called on this special interest groups to aspire to leadership positions within the party, adding that concessions have been granted to women and people with disabilities.
The party also noted that aspirants who fall in either category will only be required to pay 50 per cent of the cost of the application form for the positions they wish to run for, stressing that the development will result in enhanced representation for different groups within the party.
He expressed confidence that the party “will have a very successful National Convention, which, at the end of the day, will unify our Party; make us stronger and put us in a better position to further fulfil our electoral promises”.
On the issues arising from the recently held Ward, Local Government and State Congresses, he said “APC has put in place a comprehensive mechanism to deal with all of these issues in line with the party’s constitution and we are confident that at the end of the day, we will overcome and emerge stronger as one big happy family”.