World enews: APC Youth Group Demands Removal Of Progressive Governors’ Forum Director-General Over Alleged Anti-party Activities

The Progressives Youth Council of the ruling All Progressives Congress has demanded the immediate removal of Director-General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, Dr Salihu Lukman, over alleged anti-party activities.

The APC youth group also gave governors under the party’s platform 72 hours to name a successor for Lukman.

The PYCAPC made this known in a communique signed by its Coordinator, Prince Danelson Momoh, alongside nine others on Friday.

According to the statement, Lukman had shown that he was a mole in the ruling party with a mission to undermine it and ultimately hand advantage to the Peoples Democratic Party ahead of the 2023 general elections.

The statement reads, “The Progressive Youth Council of the All Progressive Congress has been following developments within our party with kin interest in recent months and have identified the clog in the wheel of the progress of the party.

“The Director-General of Progressive Governors’ Forum, Dr Salihu Lukman, is the problem we have identified.

“We are saddened to state that Lukman is complicit in several anti-party activities that were targeted at undermining the APC from within for the benefit of the Peoples Democratic Party.

“We appreciate that a few APC governors, driven by inordinate ambition are in pursuit of personal agenda in the forthcoming general elections but our expectation is that a director-general that is worth his office would prevail on such persons to align with the party’s interest.

“Consequently, by virtue of the powers vested in the Progressives Youth Council of the APC, Dr Lukman is hereby declared persona non grata and his position declared vacant.

“We give the Progressive Governors Forum 72 hours from now to fill the vacant position. If a new director-general of the Progressive Governors’ Forum has not been named by 12:00pm o January 17, 2022, the Progresive Youth Council will do the needful by announcing a replacement for the vacant position. We will then take all the necessary steps to give effect to our announcement.

“Finally, we urge the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee to continue discharging its responsibility to the party and not be distracted by anyone.”

Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the APC had been enmeshed in various crisis with fears rising that this could jeorpadise the chances of the party to retain power at the centre next year.

Last week, some aggrieved members of the APC dragged the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee before a Federal High Court in Abuja over plans to hold a national convention in February.

The applicants prayed the court to restrain the committee from going ahead with the convention because state congresses were yet to be completed in all 36 states of the federation.

In a bid to put out the raging fire within the party, state governors elected on the platform of the APC last weekend held an emergency meeting in Abuja to discuss issues surrounding the national convention and grievances of members calling for its postponement.

Worried that the internal wranglings within the APC could cause bigger problems, President Muhammadu Buhari last Thursday said that the party risked losing control of power at the national level in Nigeria if it failed to resolve all crisis within its fold.