party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, as
it holds its national convention between
today and tomorrow in Lagos to elect its
presidential candidate for the February 14,
2015 election.
Five political juggernauts are jostling to pick
the opposition party's presidential ticket.
They are: former Head of State, Maj. Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari; former Vice President
Atiku Abubakar; Kano and Imo states
governors, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and
Owelle Rochas Okorocha respectively and a
newspaper publisher, Sam Nda-Isaiah.
Political analysts were not ready yesterday to
predict who wins but one of the northern
candidates – Buhari, Atiku and Kwankwaso –
is expected to emerge.
Buhari has aspired for the office thrice in
2003, 2007 and 2011 on the platform of the
defunct All Nigeria peoples Party, ANPP, and
Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, which
are part of the legacy parties that became
APC.
In all three previous attempts, he had
emerged first runner up to former President
Olusegun Obasanjo, late President Umaru
Musa Yar'Adua and incumbent President
Goodluck Jonathan.
Former Vice President Abubakar is also not
new to the race as he contested for the
presidency in 2007 under the platform of
then Action Congress, AC. He also contested
for the PDP ticket with Jonathan, in 2011.
Also, Okorocha has been in the race for the
Presidency, traversing different political
parties including PDP, the defunct All Peoples
Party, APP, Action Alliance, AA, APGA and now
APC.
Winner of the APC primaries is expected to
slug it out with incumbent President
Jonathan, who is the sole presidential
candidate of the ruling PDP in the February
14, 2015 presidential election.
Abubakar, speaking through the director-
general of his campaign organisation, Prof
Babalola Borisade, expressed optimism that
he will emerge the preferred choice of the
delegates, pledging that he will however
remain in the party to support the eventual
winner if he fails to pick the ticket.
About 8,000 delegates will vote, consisting of
all members of its Board of Trustees, BoT; all
members of the National executive
Committee, NEC; service and past presidents
and vice presidents, who are party members;
serving and past governors and deputy
governors who are party members; serving
and past members of the National Assembly
who are party members make up the
delegates, in line with provisions of Article 12
(1) of the party's constitution
Others are serving and past Speakers, deputy
speakers and other principal officers of state
Houses of Assemblies who are party
members, members of the party's states
working committees, SWCs, including the
Federal Capital Territory, FCT, of the party; all
chairmen and secretaries of the party at the
local government council and local
development council areas, LCDAs, in the
country; all elected chairmen of local
government areas and LCDAs in the country
who are members of the party and three
elected delegates, at least of which one must
be a woman, from each local government
areas and LCDAs in the country.
APC National Publicity Secretary, Lai
Mohammed, said that delegates were
expected to start arriving Lagos yesterday,
while accreditation is to commence today.
He said that "delegates from the six geo-
political zones are to report for accreditation
at the designated centres from 7 am today,
before moving to the venue of the convention
at Teslim Balogun Stadium."
The epoch-making event will signal whether
the opposition party is actually ready to do
battle with the PDP, for the nation's
Presidency come 2015, as it is the first time
the opposition party will put to test its
internal democracy mechanism.
Explaining the choice of Lagos as host, APC
National Convention Committee Chairman
and former Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode
Fayemi, said this was due to the fact that a
proposed date for an Abuja event clashed
with the PDP's convention date.
According to him, "We originally wanted to
hold our national convention in Abuja
because naturally Abuja is the place to hold
an event of this nature.
"However, we had identified a date to hold
the party convention in Abuja and due to
some exigencies we had to change that date.
It so happened that the new date we choose
now coincides with the date the PDP also
choose for its national convention.
"Understandably, the Eagles Square that we
wanted to book had been booked for the day.
But it was not just because of that day but
because of the nature of this event. As you
know, anywhere our President is going to
appear, upwards of three to four days before
then, given the security situation, the venue
is taken over by the security agencies. We
then looked at other options."
Fayemi added that "only Lagos successfully
met all the factors that are considered to be
critical to the success" of APC's convention.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Police Command
said yesterday that it had deployed enough
policemen to provide adequate security
during the convention.
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps,
NSCDC, also said it that had deployed its
officers to assist in providing security during
the event.
The state Police Public Relations Officer,
PPRO, said: "We have enough men on ground
who are adequately kitted for the primaries.
"We know the responsibility for the process to
be credible is rested on us and we are aware
of it.
"We are willing, as usual, ?to discharge that
responsibility to the best of our ability just
like we have been doing in all other elections.
"We know tomorrow's election will be a
bigger one and we expect more people to
come into the state."
He added that a number of police personnel
had been deployed for the exercise.
"The Commissioner of Police, Mr Kayode
Aderanti, was around yesterday to see things
for himself and he will be moving around
today to monitor the situation again.
"Arrangements have been put in place like
traffic control, security, surveillance, sniffer
dogs and every other thing needed to ensure
a hitch-free convention.
"We are deploying our full arsenal to make
sure that the election is credible," he said.
Also, Mr. Chibuzo Mefor, Public Relations
Officer, Lagos State Command of NSCDC, said
the corps had deployed 500 officers to
collaborate with the police to provide
security.
He said the officers were already on ground
from Tuesday and would keep vigil at the
venue ahead of the convention.
In the same vein, the Federal Road Safety
Corps, FRSC, said it would deploy over 100
officers and 15 patrol vehicles for the
convention.
The Lagos Sector Commander of the corps,
Mr. Hyginus Omeje, said that arrangement
had been put in place to ensure free-flow of
vehicular movement in the state.
"Regarding the convention that is coming
tomorrow (today), we have noted the venue
where the convention is going to take place.
"We have identified the critical traffic
bottlenecks, especially the junctions that link
those areas. Ours is to ensure free-flow of
traffic within those axes.
"But we will not allow Lagosians to be
trapped in traffic because of any convention.
"For the locations we have mapped out, we
will deploy more than 100 officers to them.
"And we are going to deploy nothing less
than 15 vehicles, including our tow trucks,"
he said.
The FRSC boss said that the command would,
however, not move close to the venue for fear
of being labelled partisan.
Posted By David Aniemeka
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