APC to hold fresh ward, local govt congresses 

Barring last minute hitches, the next convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) will start with congresses at the ward level in October and terminate with the national convention in February.

Although the details were still sketchy as at press time, insider sources said the aim is to position all the structures of the party ahead of the 2023 federal elections to ensure unity and harmony of the rank and file.

The current ward and local government helmsmen of the party were put in place in May, 2018 for a four year tenure that was to end in 2022.

However, the dissolution of the National Working Committee by the National Executive Committee of the party and establishment of a caretaker committee chaired by Governor Mai Amala Bunu of Yobe State on June 24 this year has put the party on a fresh start.

In Lagos, the stage may be set for hiccups as claimants to the leadership of the party make efforts to wrestle control.

In 2017,  the Broom, a group opposed to the ruling caucus in Lagos began to mobilise party members and leaders to Abuja with the sole aim of taking over the party in Lagos.

Meeting every fortnight at various hotels in the federal capital territory, the groups sealed a deal with the then chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun to return all its candidates for executive positions at ward and local government levels.

This was meant to prepare the grounds for the take-over of the state apparatus and set the stage for the gubernatorial primaries to favour its candidates.

The plan however leaked to the dominant caucus in Lagos and led to the successful campaign for the untimely exit of the former party chairman.

Last minute efforts by persons loyal to Odigie-Oyegun to work out a ceasefire agreement with the Lagos caucus failed as the caucus sponsored Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to replace Odigie-Oyegun.

Nevertheless, the Broom caucus organised parallel primaries based on the 20 local governments and 245 wards during the party primaries in May 2018 and elected Fouad Oki, a party chieftain and former member of the state executive committee of the party as its chairman.

Since then, Oki has appeared on television and various talk shows insisting that he was elected the chairman.

However, the successful  counter-offensive to stop the Broom group produced the elections in the actual venues in the 377 wards, 20 local governments and 37 local council development areas by the party leadership in Lagos recording a more popular – democratic and grassroots primaries that elected the current ward and local government executives and the state executive  committee chaired by the state’s former Commissioner for Home Affairs, Alhaji Tunde Balogun.

A more interesting replay of the match seems to be building up in Lagos as the Broom caucus gets set to contest the primaries against the ruling apparatus of power in the state again.

Party leaders loyal to the ruling organ in Lagos are returning to base to perfect strategies ahead of the contest that may come from the Broom group in the conviction that they will be defeated again.

Conflict resolution committees are being set up to ensure that the unity among groups and allies is so tight that no ward will be conceded.