The Coalition of the All Progressives Congress Support Groups and Presidential Support Committee, South South Zone on Saturday called on the national leadership of the party for an all-inclusive leadership strategy to solidify the party.
The coalition gave the advise at a news conference by the coordinators of the coalition – Elijah Ettah, Atasia Uburu and Hosanna Abel, in Abuja.
They said the group had worked for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari and all those that contested on the platform of the party across the South South region, noting that it would be fair for the group to be carried along.
The group said it was incumbent on the national leadership of the party to develop a template that considered the strength and weakness of the party’s several support groups to have a chance of winning the 2023 general election.
According to them, the South South zone coalition is emphatically demanding all-inclusive leadership strategies that can usher in democratic deliverable for its members across the Niger Delta region.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the coalition, among other demands, urged the national leadership of the party to influence the inclusion of two of its members on the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission.
It said: “The APC-led Federal Government should ensure that it accommodates the duo of Rivers Chairman of the APC support group, Mr. Ene Jack, and the South South Zonal Coordinator of the Presidential Support Committee, Doris Uboh, on the board of the commission.
“The support group has worked for the party both in the region and nationally and should be carried along so that it can mobilise its groups to monitor projects in their respective domains and report back to them.”
The coalition further said the group was aware that the position of the Director of Project had been zoned to Rivers State, adding that had informed the need for the latest demand.
On the controversy surrounding the N5.47 billion approval to tackle COVID-19 in the Niger Delta states, the coalition said no such contract had been awarded for the purchase and supplies of Personnel Protective Equipments for the nine states of the Niger Delta yet.
The group said: “The widespread insinuation that emergency procurement of specialised medical PPE in the nine states of the Niger Delta region was awarded by the interim committee is false.
“Some individuals in the region who have vowed that they will never allow the zone to make any form of progress and development have constituted themselves as detractors.
“The coalition wishes to appreciate the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godwill Akpabio, for his doggedness in threading were others failed and refusing to turn blind eyes on the corruption in the NDDC that has ravaged the region over the years.
“We will continue to remain grateful to President Muhammadu Buhari for his zeal, perseverance and steadfastness in ensuring that NDDC makes progress in the face of strong opposition by those who have made the commission their cash-cow over the years.”
