The bloc of former All Nigeria Peoples Party members within the ruling All Progressives Congress has issued a stern warning to President Bola Tinubu, threatening to pull out of the party if specific demands are not met.
At the heart of their grievance is what they described as ongoing marginalisation by the Congress for Progressive Change and Action Congress of Nigeria blocs—two of the legacy parties that merged with the ANPP to form the APC in 2013.
The ANPP bloc argued that while the CPC produced the president for eight years, and the ACN currently holds sway under President Tinubu, the ANPP has been sidelined in power-sharing arrangements.
The group, under the banner of the Association of Former ANPP Members, held a press conference on Monday in Abuja. Speaking on behalf of the bloc, National Coordinator Professor Vitalis Orikeze Ajumbe delivered a prepared statement demanding equitable inclusion and representation in the APC government.
Ajumbe called on the president to preserve the vice presidential slot for the ANPP bloc ahead of the 2027 elections. He stated, “To ensure that the Vice Presidential seat is made sacrosanct for the ANPP block in the governing APC for the 2027 Presidential election as millions of the former ANPP members across the country who voted massively for the current. The ticket you are serving will be disappointed if you choose another person outside the ANPP block in APC as your vice President,” he added.
According to Ajumbe, the bloc’s current position was the outcome of a leadership meeting held just hours before the press conference. “A few hours ago, we concluded the leadership meeting of the Association of Former ANPP Members of the APC on behalf of millions of our members across the country where we reviewed issues concerning our membership of the All Peoples Congress, APC,” he said.
He went on to recall the founding principles and power-sharing agreements that shaped the formation of the APC. “We looked into our gains since we merged with the former ACN and CPC to form the APC. When our late national chairman, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu initiated this move to bring ACN, CPC and ANPP together to form a mega Party, our desire then was to form a mega Party that would, not only defeat PDP, but also to give Nigerians good governance.”
Ajumbe outlined how the interim leadership positions in the newly formed APC were originally distributed: “The interim National Chairman was allocated to ACN as it had six serving governors in six states, ANPP which had three governors in three states was allocated the position of interim National Secretary. The CPC, which had one governor, was allocated the position of National Treasurer. A faction of APGA which joined then, was allocated the position of the interim National Organizing Secretary, while the group from DPP, which had no state, was allocated the position of National Auditor. Other remaining offices were equitably shared among the Parties that came together to form APC.”
Lamenting the current state of affairs within the party, he concluded, “We hoped for better days ahead in APC, but the reverse is now the case.”
