The National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is currently battling an internal crisis with the 2023 general elections in sight.
Raye24reporters learnt that the leadership of the APC is in a crisis over the control of agents’ data portals for the 2023 general elections.
There is also an issue in the ruling party over the mode of primaries to adopt for the governorship elections in the Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa states.
A source that spoke with Daily Sun on the crisis revealed that the National Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Adamu and National Secretary of the party, Iyiola Omisore secretly wrote to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the two issues without the knowledge or approval of the NWC.
The source further stated that Adamu and Omisore, in a letter to INEC, demanded a change of the Access Code given to the organising department of the party to access the agents’ portal without the knowledge of the department.
The crisis got worse when the party’s national chairman wrote INEC on the mode of primaries for the states without any input from governors and major stakeholders.
According to the source, the crisis escalated when the National Vice Chairman, North West, Salihu Lukman wrote a 17-page counter letter to the commission.
The source said, “There was an App the organising department developed in-house, they did everything as directed by INEC but a trust issue cropped up because the National Organising Secretary, Argungun, had been down with ill health.
“They accused the Deputy National Organising Secretary, Chidi Duru, of a plan to sell the content to Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party. They also claimed that he has not been going to campaign with their presidential candidate because of his plans.
“The gang-up started when one NWC member entered the uploading centre and started accusing certain persons handling the project of being Obidient (supporters of Peter obi). When they continued acting funny, the uploading was not only suspended but dismantled.
“When the boys developed the App and equally collated the primary data, the organising department held in-house training for about 36 party faithful, sent them to states to train the trainers in the states that in turn collated the data from the state, and automated the data collated with the App.
“But everything crumbled when the national secretary and the national chairman wrote to INEC, requesting for change of the access code given to the Organising department during the training organised by the commission on how to upload the agents’ data to its portal.
“The most painful aspect of the letter was that they told INEC that they don’t trust the group of people sent to the training and that they were working against the party’s interest.