From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has been engulfed in crisis over alleged extension of the Chairman of the Council, Yabaji Sani.
IPAC National Secretary, Yusuf Dantalle, told journalists after the General Assembly meeting in Abuja that the meeting ended abruptly sequel to claim that Yabagi had hatched plans to extend the two-year tenure of the executives.
Dantalle said: “I am the national secretary of this council. There is no resolution at today’s meeting. Our tenure expires at 12 midnight today, and he wanted to extend our tenure through the back door, and we said no. We want an election to hold.
“If we are talking about democracy and we are the umbrella body of all political entities in Nigeria, we have to do what is right.
“I am the national secretary, and I cease to be the national secretary from this midnight. We said we don’t want tenure elongation.
“This is the first time IPAC is having a two-year tenure; they want to extend my tenure, and I don’t want that extension. I want the right thing to be done; we have dragged this election timetable one, two, three times.
Also, National Chairman of the Young Progressive Party (YPP), Bishop Amakiri, corroborated Dantalle’s claim and insisted that election must be held in the shortest possible time to elect new executives.
Amakiri said: “We want to correct some abnormalities going on in Nigeria. As the umbrella body of all political parties in Nigeria, we feel that sanity should begin with IPAC.
“I do not know why the leadership of an executive is coming to an end, and that leadership is finding it difficult to honorably throw in the towel since an electoral committee has been set up by the general assembly to ensure that the process is seamless.
“We are not in support of the tenure elongation of this executive, and we stand by let the right thing be done. Because there is no place in the code and conduct of this council that the tenure should be extended.”
But Yabagi, who is the National Chairman of Action Democratic Party (ADP), explained that said that the executives’ tenure was set to expire by Tuesday’s midnight, the general assembly, attended by representatives of political parties, passed a resolution to allow them hang on until December 18th.
The former ADP presidential candidate said the decision was to allow the council to conclude arrangements for the centenary celebration of political parties scheduled for Dec. 13.
According to him, IPAC had appointed an electoral committee headed by the National Chairman of the Zenith Labour Party, Dan Nwayanwu, to conduct an election on Monday, Dec. 18.
“So I want to thank the General Assembly for this very, very important responsibility that is given to us to pilot the affairs of IPAC between now and the 18th of this month.
“We had a very free meeting. It was done democratically. Motions were raised, motions were seconded, people who are in support of the motion that brought us as the transition committee.
“Out of the 19 political parties, 12 national Chairmen of political parties agreed and approved that we should go ahead and manage the affairs of IPAC until the 18th of this month, which is Monday when a new executive will come on board.
“I think this is a victory for democracy. It is a demonstration of the fact that IPAC is supposed to show leadership and do things in the democratic manner, which is what we do,” he narrated.