Felix Morka, APC’s National Publicity Secretary, announced this in a statement on Friday.
The statement read: “Following the Independent National Electoral Commission’s extension of deadline for the submission of list of candidates by political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) hereby postpones its Special Convention for Presidential Primary from Sunday, 29th-Monday, 30th of May, 2020, to Monday, 6th-Wednesday, 8th of June, 2022.”
INEC, on Friday, announced the extension of the deadline for political parties to conduct their primaries by six days.
The commission had initially announced a deadline of June 3 for the presidential primaries. The extension of the deadline covers the six-day period between June 4 and 9.
The INEC Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, announced this in a statement on Friday in Abuja.
The postponement followed a meeting between leaders of various political parties and the leadership of INEC led by its Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, at the commission’s headquarters in the nation’s capital, Abuja.
Politicians under the auspices of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) had at the meeting, appealed to INEC to adjust the timetable for the forthcoming polls.
IPAC Chair, Sani Yabagi of the Action Democratic Party (ADP), explained that adjusting the timetable of the election became necessary because the current timetable was too tight for the political parties.
According to Okoye, the request was for a 37 – 60 days extension of the timeline for primaries and the nomination of candidates.
Okoye said INEC was emphatic that such an extension could not be granted because it would disrupt other scheduled activities on the timetable.
He explained that the parties then pleaded with the commission to use the six-day period between June 4 and 9 to conclude outstanding primaries and prepare to upload the list of candidates and their affidavits on the INEC Candidates Nomination Portal.
He said: “The commission has decided to allow the request of the political parties since the six-day period does not conflict with the next scheduled activity which is the submission of the list of nominated candidates or any of the subsequent timelines which remain sacrosanct.
“However, this request is granted in respect of outstanding primaries only without prejudice to those already concluded by political parties. The commission will not monitor already concluded primaries.”