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APC Remains on Tenterhooks As Accusations, Horse-Trading Heighten

The crisis rocking the ruling All Progressives Party, (APC) remains unabated and may be far from over, at least for now, as some members of the party are calling for the disolution of Governor Mala Mai Buni led caretaker committee for frustrating the  holding of the party’s convention.
Already, president Muhammadu Buhari is said to have approved the postponement of the convention scheduled for February 26, 2022, a development, some party members said may have set the stage for implosion.
Also, the shadow boxing and positioning for Political offices in the party, es­pecially over the party’s vice presidential ticket has come to a head and pitched no less than six members of the Progres­sive Governors against one another.
Slugging it for the number two ticket in the race for 2023 include the APC Caretaker Commit­tee Chairman, Mai Mala Buni, governor of Yobe State; his close ally Atiku Bagudu, governor of Keb­bi State and Chairman of the Progressive Gover­nors’ Forum (PGF), and Mohammed Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa State (Calculator Jigawa), a strong member of the tripod that runs the APC.
They also include Governors Mallam Nasir El-rufai of Kaduna, Simon Lalong of plateau and Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, former speaker, House of Representatives
It was gathered that the issue, if not properly handled, could doell doom for the party.
This is because some Governors were said to have drawn their own list of candidates to be elected at the aborted convention and presented it to Buhari, who was said to have rejected it, before he traveled to Belgium last week.
This platform gathered that other interest were last night holding their meeting in Abuja, based on their own zoning arrangement.
“Sine powerful lobbyists are at it again, trying to either influence or confuse Buhari into taking the unpopular decision if dissolving the Mai committee, a committee that has been adjudged as the best do far in reconciling aggrieved members and attracting defectors, “ says a member who pleaded for anonymity.
In fact, it was further gathered that other contestants for the VP Ticket, under the ruling party, according to party stakeholders, include the two Bellos, Governor Yahaya Bel­lo of Kogi State and his Niger State counterpart, Abubakar Sani Bello, who some analysts say are ‘inconsequential’.

Prof Umaru Zullum of Borno State has also been mentioned as a possible candidate for VP even though his associates try to dismiss his aspiration as the handiwork of de­tractors.

However, the stiff contest, we gathered, has also cre­ated confusion in the proposed zoning ar­rangement, jeopardizing the party’s forthcoming national convention, anytime it holds.

The party, as at today, is in confusion over where to zone the chairmanship and other offices of the new NWC.

It is partly for this rea­son that  the shifting of the date of the convention from February 26, by a few weeks was made possible as Buhari is said to have approved it.

Although the general consensus seems to favour the fact that  aspi­rants from the North appear to have accepted the reality that power must rotate South of the country at the expiration of the term of President Buhari, other sources also suggest that most zones in the north have consistently rejected party positions that could injure the ambi­tion of some of the gov­ernors.
But, more worrisome is the emerging discontentment by some members with the manner Buni is running the affairs of the party.
For instance, a chieftain of the party in Kano, Hassan Alwan has made an allegation that Yobe state governor and the party’s Caretaker Committee Chairman, Buni requested a bribe from Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.

Alwan made the allegation while appearing on a Channels Television program “Sunday Politics” monitored by this platform on February, 20, 2022.
He was reacting to the lack of activities toward the National Convention, apparently not aware of its postponement then.

The Buni-led Caretaker Committee was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari after the dissolution of the Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC), and is saddled with the responsibility of organising a convention to install a substantive Chairman.

However, the party is currently enmeshed in an internal strife allegedly caused by the desire of various groups to seize control of the party ahead of the 2023 presidential election.

There have been emergence of different factions across the states, particularly in Kano where Sen. Ibrahim Shekarau and Ganduje are in supremacy battle for the soul of the party

However, on Thursday, February 17, 2022, an Appeal Court declared the Ganguje faction as the authentic APC in the Kano.
While commenting on the crises rocking the party, Alwan said that “Because he doesn’t want to go, Buni doesn’t want to leave the party, he’s using the party platform to collect money from people.

“When the judgement of appeal court came on thursday and it was in favour of the Kano state government, and the Kano governor asked Mai Mala to issue a certificate of return to the substantive chairman, do you know what he said, he requested for money.

“He requested the governor gives him money before he issues the certificate…. is that not fraudulent?

“His excellency the governor Kano state is alive today, Mai Mala Buni is alive, you could ask from them, he requested for money.”
Alwan had to be cautioned severally to be wary of unsubstantiated allegations by the anchor of the program, Seun Okinbaloye

 Alwan also claimed that, rather than delivering on the assignment given to him by the President, Buni is orchestrating a plan to embarrass Buhari and also plotting to instal himself as the party’s Vice Presidential candidate in 2023.
“This man is bent on disgracing the president, he’s not going to conduct this convention, he’s bent in killing the party, he doesn’t care what comes of it, he wants to go to the presidential primary so as to use the party platform to bargain for the vice president.”

He maintained that he’s not interested in who emerges as the party’s chairman and warned that the party must avoid a repeat of what happened in Zamfara state in 2019 at the federal level in 2023.

Alwan called for the dissolution of the Caretaker committee because it has failed in its assigned responsibilities.

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