President Muhammadu Buhari has again cautioned leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at both national and state levels against imposing unpopular candidates as the 2023 general election approaches.

The president gave the warning at the 11th meeting of the National Working Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday in Abuja.

He also enjoined the leadership to always follow due process in all the party processes as well as to develop more mechanisms against corruption.

“I call on all party members to abide by all extant laws, rules, and regulations and to leaders of our party to avoid imposition of candidates that cannot win popular elections.

“This dictatorial behaviour cost us many strategic seats in the past. In the recent past this led to some of our strong members unfortunately opting to go elsewhere because of unfairly oppressive behaviour of party leaders at state level,” Mr Buhari said.

He added, “We want to win well not succumb to factions on account of personal acerbities and desire to retain control at all costs. That surely is not the road to win.”

The president also told new members of the Committee (NWC), which had been delegated powers of NEC for a period, to work towards keeping the party together by creating more room for discussions.

“There’s no time to develop differences among ourselves. We have no time for that,’’ he said.

(NAN)