Date: 2016-09-26

Barring last minutes changes, the former Sports Minister, Mr. Bolaji Abdullahi, would be handed the job of the publicity secretary of the ruling All progressive Congress (APC).

Abdullahi, who is believed to be a loyalist of the senate president, Dr Bukola Saraki, would replace his Kwara kinsman, who is the Information and Culture minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on the National Executive Council (NEC) of the party.

Mr. Abdullahi who joined the APC, alongside the Kwara State governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, in the build up to the 2015 poll was first appointed Minister of Youth Development in 2011 and later asked to supervise the Sports Ministry before he was appointed substantive minister of sports in May 2012.

It was gathered from a reliable source that Abdullahi's appointment would be ratified at a zonal convention of the party in no distant time, adding that the party settled for him due to his pedigree as a former journalist and the fact that he hails from the same Kwara State as Lai Mohammed. The source ruled out the possibility of convening a national convention of the party as canvassed by the deputy national publicity secretary of the party, Mr Timi Frank.

Frank who had been having a running battle with the national chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, over the replacement of Lai Mohammed had maintained that APC NEC meeting was over due according to the party's constitution, which states in article 25 b( i) that "the National Executive Committee shall meet every quarter and or at any time decided by the national chairman or at the request made in writing by at least, two-third of the members of the National Executive Committee, provided that not less than fourteen (14) days notice is given for the meeting to be summoned."

The APC spokesman also listed pending issues, which arose from the last NEC meeting, but were yet to be addressed as follows: "It was agreed at the last meeting that there should be a mini- convention to fill some vacant positions of the National Working Committee (NWC), but nothing has been done almost six months after.

The issue of Board of Trustees (BOT) is still pending and some other issues, including crisis all over the state, but the only thing our national chairman can do is to conduct primaries. As a governing party, I believe Nigerians expect more than this from us."