The Secretary of the Caretaker Committee of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator John Akpan Udoedehe has warned that party members would have no opportunity to hide under the integrity of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023 general elections.
He also advised party members who may be aspiring for any elective office in 2023 to be locally relevant as President Buhari would not be on the ticket for them to ride to victory.
He gave the advice on Wednesday when playing host to the Coalition of the APC Support Groups, led by Mr Frank Ossai at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja.
The APC leader urged aspiring members of the party for any political office come 2023 to make themselves relevant in the grassroots politics, insisting, “nobody would have opportunity to hide under the integrity of President Muhammadu Buhari in the general elections.
“All of you in national politics make sure that you are relevant in your ward, you are relevant in your local government, you are relevant in your state. In 2023 the personality of Buhari will not be on the ticket,” Udoedeghe advised.
The party scribe assured all aggrieved members of the party of the caretaker committee’s readiness to reconcile, integrate and engage them in the party’s activities.
On complaint of non-inclusion in the party’s activities of committed and loyal members, Udoedehe said the Governor Mai Mala Buni led Caretaker Committee would also address the issues of reward system of committed and loyal members.
“Owing to your contributions to the party, we will integrate and reconcile aggrieved members to ensure that they are part of the party system,” the scribe assured.
Earlier the leader of the coalition, Frank Ossai, appealed to the Caretaker Committee to look into the Appeal Committee report led by Sen. Ken Nnamani of the 2018 election contestants.
“I believe that the report is still with the party. The new APC Caretaker Committee should look into it and see how they can reconcile our members who are aggrieved to come and work for the party,” he demanded.
He also drew the attention of the caretaker committee to need for the party to out in place a reward mechanism for committed party members, recalling that some members of the coalition have been left high and dry since 2018.
“Since 2015, we from the south-south and other geopolitical zones we know what it means to have APC as your surname. We have members of our groups who were shot dead and some who lost members of their families in 2015 and 2019 general elections. Up till today most of us have not been rewarded.”

By Jide Oritunsin