APC forum backs Akande committee, calls for reform

Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Aspirants Forum, yesterday, backed the Chief Bisi Akande-led National Reconciliation Committee.

This is even as the forum which met in Abuja, declared that the APC was in dire need of reforms.

National Coordinator of the APC Aspirants Forum, Lt Col Abdulaziz Yar’Adua (retd), who spoke with journalists, said the forum was in support of the Bisi Akande-led National Reconciliation Committee.

He said the reconciliation of people and groups within the party who bore grievances towards the APC should be the first step in reforming the party.

“Everybody knows what happened in 2019. The primaries conducted by APC had a lot of challenges like any other party. But in our own case, because of the respect and the loyalty we have for the President, we decided to come together to calm ourselves down and to do the needful, which was what we did; to come together, work for the success of our party and you can see we have won, our president is back, most of our governors are back and even those we contested against, we assisted and made efforts to make sure they won.

“So, what we are trying to do is to complement the efforts of our party, to make sure the party exists and survives beyond 2023. Of course, there is no party that has no challenges. But I believe the kind of efforts we are making will help in finding solutions to most of the challenges our party is facing.

“And most importantly, we all know our party has no option than to carry out certain reforms. In fact, you could see what the President has done recently or few months ago. He directed the party to form a national reconciliation committee now headed by Chief Akande and I believe very soon, they will start going round the states to engage the party members so that we can collate all those challenges and see how we can move forward,” Yar’Adua said.

Yar’Adua said the  national executive committee, being the first meeting since the restructuring of the forum, was called in order for members to get acquainted with each other.