There is heavy security at the Eagle Square in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), venue of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) National Convention.
The party will during the event elect a new national chairman and members of its National Working Committee (NWC).
The convention is coming a year and nine months after the party’s NWC, led by former Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole, was dissolved.
The ongoing convention is being organised by the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the APC led by Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State.
The committee was appointed in June 2020 to oversee the administration of the party’s affairs pending the election of a new NWC.
The party had earlier scheduled to hold the convention in February but later postponed it.
After the APC finally settled for March 26 (today) to hold the event, positions of the national chairman and national secretary were zoned to the North-Central and South-west regions respectively.
Meanwhile, the major opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in a suit filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, is praying that the convention be declared unconstitutional.
The party is equally asking the court to order the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to de-register the APC on the ground that the party, by its entire structure, has run afoul of the constitutional stipulations for running a political party.
The opposition party argued that by a certified true copy of INEC’s list of current EXCO, the APC is being run by a 13-member EXCO as against 24 required by the law.
According to the party, that was below the constitutional stipulations in Section 223 of the 1999 Constitution which required the EXCO or governing body of a political party to be drawn from 2/3 of the 36 states of the Federation.