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•Summons emergency retreat in Borno
From Fred Itua, Abuja
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has converged on Maiduguri, Borno State, for an emergency retreat aimed at addressing the deepening crisis within the ruling party, Saturday Sun gathered.
Sources familiar with the arrangement said the retreat, which was not publicised in advance, is focused on the widening rift between governors elected on the APC platform and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, whose Rainbow Coalition has fielded candidates against sitting APC governors in several states.
Party leaders are also expected to deliberate on the lingering post-primary crisis, which has spread across states nearly four months after the party’s primaries.
Saturday Sun gathered that the reconciliation panels earlier constituted by the NWC have failed to halt the fallout, with aggrieved aspirants in states including Benue, Ondo, Oyo and Yobe dragging the party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before the courts over disputed candidate lists.
In Benue, a Federal High Court has ordered the APC and INEC to maintain the status quo pending judgment in a suit challenging the substitution of candidates who emerged from primaries monitored by the electoral body.
The retreat is also expected to address simmering discontent among some NWC members themselves, who have complained in recent months of being sidelined in the running of party affairs and excluded from the 2027 Presidential Campaign Council.
Sources said the 223 member council allocated strategic positions largely to governors and National Assembly leaders, while some statutory party officers were left out of major responsibilities or assigned only deputy roles, a development that triggered protests from within the NWC as well as from support groups that worked for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 2023 election.
National chairman, Nentawe Yilwatda, has since apologised to members who felt hurt or excluded during the primaries and appealed for unity ahead of 2027.
Party leaders are also expected to deliberate on post-primary grievances and the risk that aggrieved governors, particularly those not seeking re-election or contesting during the off season, could withhold their support for Tinubu’s re-election bid.
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The Wike crisis has simmered publicly for weeks. The minister has accused some APC governors of being politically lazy, singling out Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq and Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma over their opposition to his coalition.
The governors, under the Progressive Governors Forum led by Uzodimma, have insisted they will not support any arrangement capable of weakening APC candidates or creating parallel campaign structures.
Despite the scale of the disputes, President Tinubu has not issued any public statement on the Wike matter, and the Presidency has remained silent. The national leadership of the APC and the Progressive Governors Forum have likewise offered no formal comment beyond earlier statements distancing the party from Mr Wike’s coalition activities.
The silence has fuelled anxiety within party ranks. The APC Presidential Campaign Council has already called on the president to step in. Its spokesman, Ima Niboro, said the dispute between Wike and the governors would need to be resolved internally, and stressed that the President has the experience required to manage the disagreement before it inflicts lasting damage on the party’s electoral prospects.
Some party insiders told Saturday Sun that the fear driving the retreat is that governors and members who feel sidelined, whether over the allocation of resources, control of party structures, unresolved primary disputes, or influence within the 2027 campaign machinery, could quietly sabotage the party at the polls.
This concern is said to be more acute in states where the governor is not returning for another term or is contesting during the off cycle, since such governors have less incentive to fall in line with the national leadership.
It could not be immediately confirmed what specific resolutions the retreat is expected to produce, or whether the President will be briefed directly on its outcome.
However, sources revealed that the leadership hopes to use the gathering to agree on a framework for managing the rivalry between Wike and the governors, resolve outstanding post primary litigation, and address the campaign council grievances before they harden further ahead of next year’s general election.
Efforts to reach the APC national publicity secretary, Felix Morka to speak on the Maiduguri gathering were unsuccessful at the time of filing this report.
