APC summons emergency State Chairmen meeting over planned nationwide protest

APC summons emergency State Chairmen meeting over planned nationwide protest

JOEL OLADELE, Abuja

In a bid to tackle the impending nationwide protest scheduled for August 1, the National Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has summoned an emergency meeting with state chairmen across the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The meeting, presided over by National Chairman, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, on Friday night, saw state chairmen in APC-controlled states being told to make themselves available to their governors to stop the protests.

The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Barr. Felix Morka, who spoke with journalists after the meeting, said that the party acknowledged the current difficult situation that Nigerians are going through but stood firmly with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“We stand firmly with the President on dealing with all the legitimate grievances. The government is doing all it could do and willing to do more,” Morka said.

He expressed concern that the masterminds of the protest are faceless and may be nursing sinister motives. “The National Security Adviser has said this protest is liable to be misdirected to cause chaos,” he added.

The National Secretary of the party, Ajibola Basiru, dismissed the demands of the protesters as political, stating that some of them require amendment of the Constitution which cannot be achieved in ten days. He also questioned why some of the demands were being made by “faceless people” and expressed concerns about their motives.

“There is an ongoing Constitutional amendment. Anybody interested in that should submit a memorandum. There is no need to hold the nation to ransom for ten days because of that,” Basiru said.

The party secretary also slammed the protesters’ demand for a new minimum wage, stating that it had already been addressed by the National Assembly. He also noted that the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, was facing trial in court and being accorded a fair trial.

The APC has called on its members to stand with the party and government, vowing to do everything within the ambit of the law to save lives and property.