The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) is expanding its 422-member list of powerbrokers tasked with ensuring victory for its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, and his running mate, Kashim Shettima.
The PCC's Director-General, Simon Lalong, stated late Monday that the list needed to be expanded to "accommodate more stakeholders and interests within the APC family."
Lalong, who is also the governor of Plateau State, also announced the postponement of the council's inauguration and the prayer walk, both of which were scheduled to begin on Wednesday.
“Recall that we had earlier earmarked a peace walk and prayers for Wednesday, September 28, 2022, to officially kick off our campaigns for the 2023 Presidential Elections. We had also announced that the members of the Campaign Council report to the Campaign Headquarters on that day to collect their letters of appointment.
“However, due to the expansion of the list to accommodate more stakeholders and interests within the APC family, we have decided to adjust the timetable of these activities in order to ensure everyone is on board before activities officially commence.
“Consequently, the activities earlier announced for the 28th of September will no longer hold,” Lalong said, adding that a new date and time table of events will be announced soon.
In the list released on Friday, the ruling party had excluded some supposed rivals of Tinubu, a development that created subtle controversy over the weekend, especially because some of the excluded persons contested the presidential ticket of the party with Tinubu whilst others have been vocal against the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC.
Persons excluded include Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal; former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara; former Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, and many other chieftains in the ruling party.