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Tag: APC

  • Senate swears in Andrew Uchendu in replacement of Sekibo as Rivers East senator

    The Senate has sworn in Senator Andrew Uchendu as the representative of Rivers East Senatorial district in line with a court order.

    Uchendu has therefore replaced Senator George Sekibo, who was sacked due to a court ruling.

    He took his oath of office today, during the Senate plenary.

    The Appeal Court has earlier dismissed an appeal filed by Senator George Sekibo challenging the judgment of the Rivers State National Election Tribunal which removed him as Senator representing Rivers East Senatorial District.

    The Appellate Court on August 24, 2017, held that the appeal lacked merit as it did not show facts as to why the decision of the lower court should be set aside.

  • Trouble in APC fold: Party blasts Buhari’s corruption adviser, Sagay calls him ‘rogue elephant’

    The national leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress has lambasted Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-corruption (PACAC), Professor Itse Sagay (SAN) describing him as a ‘rogue elephant.’

    The party’s publicity secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, stated this in a statement he issued on Monday.

    The APC says it is responding to an interview Mr. Sagay granted The Nation’s newspaper where he criticized the leadership of the fold as “running riot and destroying the party.”

    Read full statement below:

    TO SAGAY: YOU ARE THE ROGUE ELEPHANT

    Our attention has been brought to an interview published on pages 46-47 of The Nation Newspaper of Sunday, September 24, 2017, granted by the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-corruption (PACAC), Professor Itse Sagay (SAN).

    In the said interview, Sagay described the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as “the most unprincipled group of people” who are “encouraging and accepting rogues” in the party. He said: “When I say ‘rogues’, I don’t mean stealing. In literature, when you say someone is a rogue elephant, it means people who are running riot and destroying the party.”

    The Webster dictionary defines ‘rogue elephant’ as “one whose behaviour resembles that of a rogue elephant in being aberrant or independent.” Clearly if we have today, anyone in our government or, by extension, the party who feels accountable only to his own ego; who does not feel the need to bridle his tongue for the sake of anything that is higher than himself; who feels independent of everyone and every institution; that person is Professor Sagay.

    Asked by the interviewer if he would stop speaking if the President asks him to stop speaking, he said: “Yes, he is my employer. If he tells me to stop talking, I’ll stop talking. But I have certain rights too that I can exercise in addition to that, because I’m not going to be in a position where I am impotent. So, I must obey him, but I can go beyond that and obey myself too. That’s it.” Framed in another way, what Sagay is saying here is that, no matter what is at stake, he would rather resign than obey the President if the President tries to restrain him. This is the quintessential rogue elephant behaviour.

    In his sheer arrogance, he forgets that it is impossible for him to call out the leadership of the party as “weak” and “unprincipled” without indicting the President, who is the leader of the party and has the fundamental responsibility to build the party. If Sagay had any iota of respect for the man who dug him back from inevitable oblivion and puts him in a position in which he now feels superior to everyone, he would channel his opinions and advice to the President on how to make the party stronger and more principled. It appears however that Sagay does not have anything constructive to say about anything. He only knows how to tear down and assault everyone and everything.

    We want to remind Sagay and all other appointees of our government that the only reason they occupy their current position today is because the APC won the election. There is, therefore, a matter of honour to show decorum and respect for the party and its leadership. You cannot love the fruit and hate the tree that produced it.

    SIGNED:

    Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi

    National Publicity Secretary

    All Progressives Congress (APC)

  • 2019: Re-alignment of opposition parties against us will fail – APC

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) Oyo State chapter, says the on-going re-alignment of forces by the opposition political players in the state ahead of the 2019 gubernatorial election would fail.

    This was contained in a statement by Mr Olawale Sadare, the party’s Public Relations Officer in Ibadan on Saturday.

    The leaderships of opposition political parties in the state, including the Accord Party, Social Democratic Party, Labour Party and Peoples Democratic Party have initiated a move to regroup against the ruling APC.

    The re-alignment is aimed at dislodging the ruling APC in the state in the 2019 elections.

    Prominent among the state political leaders in the move were former Gov. Rasheed Ladoja, former Gov. Adebayo Alao-Akala, Mr Seyi Makinde and Alhaji Sharafadeen Alli.

    “We are a governing party that has distinguished itself as the only vehicle of good governance, peace and wholesome development desired by the majority of the people of Nigeria, including the good citizens of the state.

    “What they are planning is a civilian coup against the electorate but it would not see the light of day for many reasons.

    “Most characters involved in the gang-up have had opportunities in the past to impact positively on the lives of the people but they failed as a result of incurable traits of incompetence, selfishness and cluelessness,’’ it said.

    The party stated that many of the arrow heads of the alignment are ignorant of how government works from the way they criticize government policies and condemn its projects.

    The party stated that Nigerians would not support any alignment, re-alignment or gang-up from the same set of people that plunged the nation into economic mess.

    It counselled the sponsors of alignment and those who intend to benefit from it to realize that the effort would end up in futility.

     

  • Anambra 2017: APC about to kiss poll bye By Ehichioya Ezomon

    By Ehichioya Ezomon

    Unless respect for due process, equity and fair play guides its arbitration, what’s about to happen to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November governorship election in Anambra State is what history teaches those that do not learn from history: A bitter lesson!

    The party’s National Working Committee (NWC) in Abuja is treading a similar path that caused the APC the July 8 Osun West senatorial bye-election that was almost in its bag for keeps.

    A flashback to that election indicates that the screening and appeals committees for the primaries had disqualified Senator Mudashiru Hussain, a former commissioner in the cabinet of Governor Rauf Aregbesola, for allegedly failing to resign his appointment 30 days before seeking to represent the APC at the election.

    However, the screening committee cleared Chief Ademola Adeleke, a brother to the late Senator Isiaka Adeleke, whose sudden death in March created the void for the bye-election.

    Recall that during this period, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was asphyxiating due to each of its two factions’ desire to choose an acceptable candidate that the party members would back for the district balloting.

    Meanwhile, at an emergency meeting in Abuja on June 12, the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led NWC reversed the Hussain disqualification, thus incurring widespread disapproval from the party members in the senatorial district, and across the state.

    With the APC effectively bungling its own affairs just weeks to the actual polling, Chief Adeleke sought refuge in the PDP, which received him with pomp and ceremony, knowing that the prevailing sentiments in Osun after the demise of Senator Adeleke would swing the votes in its favour. And it did: the PDP prevailed, thanks to the lifeline thrown to it by the APC.

    Back to the Anambra State gubernatorial contest in November. History is about to be repeated, as the APC conducted what was pronounced as the freest and fairest primaries by any political party in the annals of the state.

    Party primaries, being the major determinants of who fly the flags at an election, are always contentious due to intrigues that attend canvassing for the delegates, the voting and its aftermath.

    Perhaps, the Anambra APC primaries on August 26/27 in Awka, the capital city, were no less wired, from whatever angle you may look at it: grassroots popularity, use of money, manipulation of delegates’ list, intimidation of delegates and preference by the party heavyweights.

    However, owing principally to the seeming transparency displayed by both the APC Screening and Primaries Committees, the election of the candidate, Dr. Tony Nwoye, received instant acclaim from the committees, contestants, delegates and party members.

    Of the 4,333 votes cast by the expected 5,000 plus delegates for the 11 aspirants for the ticket, Nwoye, a member of the House of Representatives, scored 2,146, to defeat his closest rival, Senator Andy Uba, who got 931 votes, according to the Chief Returning Officer and Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima.

    Poll over, the Chairman of the Anambra APC Election Planning and Strategy Committee and a former governor of old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo; Governor Shettima; the party leaders in Anambra; and APC’s chieftain and former governor of Abia State, Dr. Uzor Orji Kalu, hailed the conduct of the primaries.

    But as things stand today, the November election may be far from Dr. Nwoye’s mind, as he fights to extricate himself from a web of scheming aimed at denying him the ticket he overwhelmingly won.

    The arrows are coming from the camp of Senator Uba, who has filed a petition before the APC appeals committee, alleging that Dr. Nwoye imported students, “who acted as thugs, damaged vehicles at the venue of the primaries and drove away delegates and voted in the place of the authentic delegates.”

    The question to ask: Was there any protest(s) in this regard lodged by Senator Uba and/or any other aspirant(s) before, during and immediately after the primaries?

    Yet, several so-called civil society organisations, previously heard or unheard of, including a Concerned Anambra APC Youths, are parroting the Uba petition, and praying the appeals panel to replace Nwoye with Uba, who they credited with having the “experience, maturity and political sagacity on his side,” which they said Nwoye lacks, to defeat the incumbent Governor Willie Obiano of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

    Will any unbiased watcher classify Mr. Nwoye, a medical doctor, and a member of the National Assembly, who had won the usually fiercely contested presidency of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), as not sufficiently grounded in the political nuances of Anambra to vie for the governorship again, as does Uba?

    The schism in the Anambra APC is like a replay of the 2013 governorship election that brought the APGA to power. Then, Dr. Nwoye and Senator Uba, both of the PDP, couldn’t harmonise for a single primary contest.

    Instead, they held two factional primaries, and the party headquarters in Abuja, on account of a court ruling, belatedly endorsed Nwoye a few days to the election, which the PDP lost, placing second to the APGA.

    Interestingly, Nwoye, who appeared last week before the appeals committee to rebut the allegations, said that despite his entreaties, Senator Uba had refused to recognise him as the duly nominated candidate for the election.

    The reason for that is now obvious, against Chief Nwobodo’s timely reminder “for all the aspirants to keep to their promise to support the winner of the primaries.”

    Will the NWC of the APC, as it did in the Osun West bye-election, reject the candidate with the wider appeal among the party faithful, and who won the primaries with a margin of 1,215 votes, and hand over the party ticket to an aspirant that came a distant second?

    From the experiences of the PDP primaries of the 2013 election, and those of the APC in August, in which Dr. Nwoye consecutively prevailed over Senator Uba, who will the party credit with having the grassroots supports to run on its behalf?

    That decision is for the NWC to make, either for good or for ill!

     

    Mr. Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

  • Ekiti 2018: Fayose, APC aspirants risk sanction for billboards, other campaign items – REC

    The new Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Ekiti State, Prof. AbdulGaniy Olayinka Raji has said Governor Ayodele Fayose his deputy, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, and some All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirants risk getting penalised for allegedly campaigning ahead of the time stipulated by law for the 2018 election.

    Raji stated this when he addressed reporters on Wednesday in his office in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.

    He spoke after holding a stakeholders’ meeting with leaders of political parties under the auspices of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC).

    The REC also said about 221,000 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) had not been collected by eligible voters in the state.

    Raji said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was empowered by law to prosecute politicians who engaged in any form of “early campaign” before the time allowed by law.

    Fayose has erected billboards bearing his pictures and those of his deputy in which he referred to Olusola as “Your Next Governor”.

    Governorship aspirants of other parties also mounted billboards and banners in front of their campaign offices, on the major roads and boundaries of Ekiti with other neighbouring states.

    He noted that the act of erecting campaign billboards before the ban on open campaign is lifted constitutes an electoral offence punishable by fine and jail term if the offender is found guilty.

    Raji also frowned against running of campaign jingles on the electronic media and placing of campaign adverts in the newspapers which he said violate electoral law.

    All these infractions, he said, violates Section 99 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).

    Raji said: “All these acts are not in line with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 and the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).

    “Activities that look like campaign are against the Constitution and people should desist from them. Media houses should scrutinise jingles and adverts that may implicate them.

    “Any offender convicted is liable to a maximum fine of N500,000 and a jail term at the discretion of the judge. The law also permits INEC to remove such billboards.”

    Raji advised political parties to join hands with INEC to ensure the success of the 2018 governorship poll in Ekiti State.

     

  • News Hour: First Bank sacks thousands of employees I TNGtv

  • IPOB: Your government responsible for agitations, not opposition – PDP blasts Lai Mohammed, APC

    The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has warned the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Minister of Information and Culture not to drag it into the current agitation by the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and other separatist groups in the country.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that minister on Sunday opposition parties of sponsoring agitations to discredit the President Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government.

    However, in a swift reaction, the opposition leader said the ruling party should accept responsibility for its failure in offering Nigerians the desired inclusive national government.

    The party said this in a press statement by Prince Dayo Adeyeye, its national publicity secretary.

    “We had advised not a few times that the APC should look inward and seek solutions to its self-induced challenges in government caused by its unpreparedness for governance. But since the party seem set for self-destruction, we shall not relent to expose its ineptitude to the Nigerian populace.

    “We noticed that the minister who is well known for his unbridled capacity for constant polarisation of the polity other than address matters…tried once again on Sunday to shift blames of the poor handling of the agitation by IPOB by the current government to an opposition that exists only in his imagination.

    “It is disheartening that rather than accept blame for its ineptitude, the APC government has continued to blame ‘enemies’ real or imaginary for their woes. How on earth will a serious-minded government blame opposition parties which they have conveniently labelled ‘looters’ for the activities of IPOB, but we take solace in the fact that the APC might actually know the looters as the party has clearly demonstrated its penchant for giving covers to people considered as corrupt?

    “The recent release of 48 confiscated houses as proceeds of crime back to a member of the APC who was standing trial for allegations of corruption readily comes to mind. Much as we will continue to harp on the one-sided corruption fight of this government, we urge the APC to look inwards in locating the looters with their ill-gotten wealth to sponsor separatist agitating against the government of the day.”

    The PDP said the ruling party was being traumatised by an intense power struggle within its ranks.

    “It is instructive to know that we are aware of the internal crisis rocking the amalgam of interest the APC and the struggle for power within the government as the noise of discontent keep rising on a daily basis from the party. Based on this its no news that APC has a problem unto itself which has affected its citizenry who daily gnash their teeth in regret for voting the APC into power in 2015.

    “We wish to put on record that agitation for the actualisation of the state of Biafra was a total silent voice while the PDP was in power because of the government of inclusiveness we provided for Nigeria’s who were made to experience what a genuine national government meant. The APC should, therefore, mould itself into a real national party, provide good leadership for the people and let the generality of Nigeria freestyle.”

    The PDP said ”it has condemned and will always condemn” separatist movements tailored towards balkanising the nation. It further said that the APC government’s policy is a catalyst for the IPOB problem and the party should do some ”soul-searching to correct the anomaly.”

    The party said the APC ”was its worst enemy.”

    The APC won the 2015 presidential election defeating the PDP which had held on to power since the recent Nigerian democratic sojourn began in 1999.

  • APC is a failure – Sagay

    …backs DHQ for declaring IPOB a terrorists organisation

    …blasts Senate for outrageous allowances

    The Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof Itse Sagay (SAN) on Monday said the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, leadership is weak, and has failed in its responsibilities.

    Sagay who spoke in an interview with The Nation on Monday said the APC leadership had resorted to begging people who are destroying the party, because they dont want to ‘annoy’ such people.

    In his words: “As for the leadership of the APC, I think they are the most unprincipled group of people. They are lily-livered, weak, and cannot run any organisation. The whole party is collapsing under them. They cannot control anybody.

    “In fact, they’re now encouraging and accepting ‘rogue elephants’, pampering people who are destroying the party, saying ‘let’s not annoy them too much’, but they’re destroying the APC house.

    “So, I think the APC leadership is weak, is too compromising and is certainly a failure as far as I’m concerned.”

    The vocal legal luminary also backed the military’s declaration of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a terrorist organisation.

    According to him, even if the group wanted secession, there were better ways of doing it than using abusive language and stoking violence, which he accused IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu of.

    He said: “Whilst I’m not sure of the legal parameters of that declaration, in practice, I agree. If you look at it, we’re very lucky that this thing did not get out of hand.

    “They (IPOB) were coming in their thousands, establishing road blocks, bringing out Northerners – for what, I don’t know – to kill some of them? If that is allowed, then the country is finished. Then they burned down a police station, killed a policeman.

    “For Christ’s sake, even if you want Biafra, you don’t have to be violent. If you look at the words that Kanu uses on the social media, how he has described our President and the rest of us as living in a zoo – abusive, violent, intemperate words – kill, kill, kill, all those in my view, constitute in totality acts of terrorism in which they can push undiscerning youths into rage and violence, which can be destructive.

    “You saw Moslems seeking protection in Port Harcourt. If you start killing Northerners and the North reacts, then we’ve had it.

    “I just thank God that the North is showing some maturity and some sense of restraint while this is being curbed. But we really need to curb IPOB, otherwise they will turn this country into a tinderbox.”

    Sagay said he would not stop expressing his views on issues of national importance despite the Senate asking President Buhari to call him to order.

    When reminded that the All Progressives Congress (APC) also once cautioned him about his criticisms of the National Assembly, the law professor described the party’s leadership as “a failure”.

    Sagay said the war against corruption could not be won without committed judges.

    He accused some judges of “deliberately” sabotaging the crusade by obstructing justice.

    “We are very concerned about the judiciary. Without the judiciary, we can kiss the anti-corruption war goodbye. We must have a committed judiciary, otherwise they will keep messing up any case that comes. It’s so easy to give a reason, which will appear to be reasonable, and the public will say the anti-corruption agencies have not done their homework. It’s not so.

    “Quite a number of the judges are deliberately taking decisions which I’d say indicate their hostility to the anti-corruption war. There are judges who are hostile. There are judges who interfere when such cases are going on, using their position to ensure that government loses.

    “Government is aware of all this. It’s just that some of us are not in a position to take decisions. People who should be stopped are slipping through and still being relevant when in fact they should be pushed aside into retirement where they will not interfere in the anti-corruption struggle.

    “There are reports on these judges, some by the Department of State Services (DSS). I feel that judges who are not committed to the eradication of corruption should be eased out of the system,” Sagay said.

    Sagay said he stood by his assertion that the Senate was self-centered and unsupportive of the anti-graft war.

    “One of the most critical Bills pending before them – the Special Crimes Court Bill – was yet to be passed,” he said.

    The PACAC chairman said it was rather the Senate that owed him an apology for abusing him for speaking the truth.

    “I didn’t abuse them. I merely said they’re not committed to the Nigerian people, that they’re there for themselves alone. I provided the figures to show it. I know the worse exists.

    “There are certain things I didn’t say. I did not even mention what the Majority Leader, Deputy Senate President and Senate President get as extras. Those extras run into hundreds of millions of naira. What I said at that lecture is a tip of the iceberg.

    “Our aim is for the National Assembly to finally admit that they’re frittering away our national assets and preventing these funds from being used for various other vital sectors to create more employment and fix infrastructure.

    “If you recall, former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Lamido Sanusi said they were consuming 25 per cent of our budget. They didn’t deny it. Instead, former President Jonathan forced Sanusi out.

    “If we look at the senators’ allowances, we should ask ourselves questions. Should we be the ones clothing senators? Should my tax be used in hanging agbada on a senator?

    “How many times has government provided clothes for workers? But these men who are overpaid are still asking us to clothe them as if they arrived in Abuja naked.

    ”These same people ask us to pay them hardship allowance for doing their job. What of the man who is earning N18,000 a month, who operates machinery and sweeps the streets? No one pays them hardship allowance!”

    “Yet, people who live in tremendous luxury get paid hardship allowance running into billions. Why are Nigerians quiet about it? I don’t understand it,” Sagay said.

    On the Senate’s refusal to confirm Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Acting Chairman Ibrahim Magu, Sagay said it was the President’s exclusive prerogative to decide how long he remains in office.

    “Magu can act indefinitely. The Senate does not have jurisdiction in this matter. It is the President who does because of Section 171 of the Constitution. This government is being a bit gentle, not wanting to ruffle feathers. Maybe that’s why they’re politicians and in government.

    “If people like me who are not politicians were there, these people (senators) would have heard a different message. I’d have rammed things through and damned them to go and do whatever they like, and let’s see who would come on top.

    “I believe that ultimately, righteousness, a good cause, a belief in principle will prevail. We’re dealing with people who are undergoing all sorts of investigations; they cannot face the righteous.”

     

  • Those in APC saying I’m sponsoring IPOB are under political bondage, I can’t be blackmailed – Fayose

    Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has described those saying that he was the one sponsoring the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as people who have put themselves in political bondage and have allowed what they will eat to becloud their sense of normal reasoning, declaring that no amount of blackmail will stop him from expressing his mind against the All Progressives Congress (APC) government’s disrespect for the constitutional rights of Nigerians.

    Governor Fayose, who said he was not surprised that the APC in Ekiti State raised the ridiculous allegation, added that the same APC people took side with Fulani herdsmen when they killed people in Oke-Ako, Ekiti State and destroyed farmlands worth several millions of naira in the State.

    Speaking through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said he was not among those Nigerians that can be cowed by anyone, asking; “Now that the Senate President, Bukola Saraki has come out to openly say that categorization of IPOB as a ‘terrorist organisation’ by the military is unconstitutional, is the APC also going to accuse him of sponsoring IPOB?”

    The governor said he was not unaware that Ekiti State could be the main target of the ‘operation crocodile smile’ that the army said will commence in the Southwest and South South, asking what security threat was being witnessed in the Southwest to warrant a major military operation.

    Governor Fayose said; “It is on record that on June 10, 2013, it was widely reported in the media that the current Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who was the National Publicity Secretary of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) said that the proscription of Boko Haram was against the constitution, that it stifled the press and tampered with the fundamental human rights of Nigerians.

    “It is also on record that in June 2013, President Buhari told the Federal Government to stop the clampdown of Boko Haram insurgents, accusing the government of killing and destroying houses belonging to Boko Haram members while the Niger Delta militants were giving special treatment.

    “Should we now say that Lai Mohammed and President Buhari sponsored Boko Haram because they spoke against the federal government’s clampdown on the insurgents then?”

    The governor, who likened the militarization of Nigeria, being witnessed now to 1984 when President Muhammadu Buhari was military Head of State, said “killing unarmed Nigerians in the Southeast or anywhere in the country, just because some people are agitating is wrong and I wonder why none of our so called human rights activists is talking now.

    “Herdsmen have sacked a whole community in this country, they killed over 1,000 Agatus in Benue State and have destroyed people’s farmlands across the country, has any of the herdsmen been arrested? Has any conceited effort been made by the federal government to curb the menace of the Fulani herdsmen?

    “If because I spoke against the wanton killings carried out by the military in the Southeast, the APC is saying that I’m funding IPOB, was I the one funding the people of Southern Kaduna when I condemned the killings there?

    “Was I funding the Agatus in Benue State when I condemned their killings by Fulani herdsmen? Was I funding the Shiite Muslims when I condemned the killings of El-Zakzaky followers in Zaria and his continued detention?

    “Mine is a mission for a Nigeria where no one will be treated like a second class citizen and we can only achieve that if we have leaders that will not be a champion of nepotism like President Buhari.”

  • Controversial comments: APC to send delegates to Atiku, might impose sanctions

    Controversial comments: APC to send delegates to Atiku, might impose sanctions

    Sequel to his alleged investments in the party and presidential campaign funds of President Muhammadu Buhari at the 2015 polls and his subsequent sidelining in government, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has perfected plans to send delegates to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to verify and investigate his claims.

    The party noted that all members of the party contributed to its candidates wining the elections at all levels and nothing was expected in return since they were only rendering services in the interest of the nation.

    It noted further that if Atiku was interested in the 2019 elections, he should wait till then to contest rather than making comments that can put the party in a chaos.

    The Organising Secretary of the Adamawa State chapter of the APC, Ahmed Lawan, who disclosed this, said, ‘’Plans by the state working committee to wade into the issue have been delayed by the participation of some members of the state exco, who travelled to Saudi Arabia to observe the hajj.

    “ Some of our members, including the chairman of the APC in the state, are on hajj; we are only waiting for them to return and we are going to discuss this issue. Definitely, our meeting is going to dwell on Atiku, perhaps we may form a committee to reach out to the former vice-president to ask him what his grievances are. Definitely, if there’s anything we can do as a party at the state level, we will do,” Lawan said.

    The party, according to him, has ways of dealing with any of its members, and if it finds sufficient grounds, especially with the rumours associated with the former vice-president, the party will not hesitate to take action.

    While dismissing reported cracks within the party, he said the party was however worried by recent utterances credited to the former vice-president, including his remarks that the party abandoned him.

    “The utterances of the former vice-president only portrayed him as a man whose sole motive for contributing to the success of the party is to profit from it, whilst it ought to have been selfless. We all sacrificed, nobody wanted to get something from it. If you want to contest, you wait for 2019 to test your popularity. If you are very popular, the people will listen to you and vote for you. There’s no need for any utterance which is capable of portraying the party in bad light. We are very surprised that the former vice-president came out to say the party didn’t reward him, which is like saying the party didn’t reward him enough. We all sacrificed, nobody did it because we wanted to get something out of it.”

    On the mode of the planned meeting with Atiku, he said, “When our committee meets him, if definitely what he’s saying is against the party, the party is going to take action on it; but if he lodges his complaints and the party feels there’s merit in what he’s saying, then definitely the party will look into it.

    “But for now, we are waiting for the members of Exco to come back. We will summon a meeting and then take a decision,” Lawan said.

     

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the former Vice President has however indicated his interest in the 2019 Presidential elections when he said last week that he will corruption and Boko Haram insurgence better than the incumbent administration is doing.