The All Progressives Congress (APC) has distanced itself from a list in circulation purportedly showing how it has zoned elective public offices for the 2023 general elections as well as its national working committee.
Secretary of the party’s caretaker/extra-ordinary convention planning committee, Mr. John Akpanudoedehe, said in a statement yesterday that the issue of zoning was not discussed even at the last meeting of the caretaker committee.
“People who are interested in running for one office or the other can speculate. As far as I am concerned, the last caretaker committee meeting we had, we did not discuss that.
“That is not what we are concerned with now. What we are concerned with is data collection: how to collect data without making mistakes.
“We are not going to be pressured by sentiment and we do the wrong thing. Let me say that zoning is not for the caretaker committee alone; it has to do with the President Muhammadu Buhari; it has to do with other major stakeholders; it has to do with a lot of people.
“The list is not from us (caretaker committee). The President is not in town. There is no way such decision will be taken without consulting with the President; consulting with the governors and other major stakeholders. People should disregard the list. We are focused on delivering our mandate and we are to do it rightly.”
A list entitled ‘APC announces zoning arrangement ahead of 2023 election year’ which had gone viral, showed that the party had zoned the office of the president to the south; vice president, north; senate president, south; deputy senate president, north; house of reps speaker, north; house of reps deputy speaker, south.
