Television Nigerian

Ahead of the All Progressives Congress’ February 26th national convention, Governors of Jigawa, Kebbi and the Ekiti States have been fingered to be behind the plot to impose candidates on the party through the backdoor.

The APC Youth Development and Solidarity Forum said Governors Badaru Abubakar, Kayode Fayemi and Atiku Bagudu have perfected plans to impose Senator Sani Musa as the party’s national chairman.

Recall that President Buhari had reportedly rejected the proposal of two governors to adopt a certain aspirant as the next national chairman of the party

It was gathered that President Buhari advised the governors to take their proposal to the party’s Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), their fellow governors and other party leaders for consideration.

The back door approach of the two governors is said to have widened the cracks in the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) which is scheduled to hold a make or break meeting today in Abuja on the zoning of party offices.

And speaking at a press conference today in Abuja, Chief Tobias Ogbeh, the secretary-general of the APC-YDSF warned the governors against presenting a “fake” excos list to President Buhari against the will of the faithful.

According to Ogbeh, the ultimate goal is to hand Senator Musa the party chairmanship position in return for a Bagudu-Fayemi presidential ticket.

The group, however, vowed to resist any attempt by the governors, particularly Badaru, Bagudu and others to subvert the will of the party.

Ogbeh urged all APC members to reject such plan to shortchange the rest of the country with the governors’ “devilish and demonic plan for the party”.

While calling on delegates to closely monitor the convention, the group urged Governor Mai Bala Buni to openly renounce the evil plot.

Read full statement below:

Gentlemen of the press, we are constrained to invite you for this press briefing following our discovery of a plot to sabotage the All Progressive Congress (APC) by some desperate individuals that are working internally to implode the party. Ordinarily, affairs of the APC should be left as its internal matters except that the people we are raising this alarm about today are not really after the APC. What they are after is the soul of Nigeria, which they want to own for their evil intent.

All the evil that this cabal has perpetrated in the past months are geared towards illegally winning public offices at the highest level so that they can continue to pillage the country and make a mockery of the progress that an APC government at the center has brought to Nigeria by reversing all the gains made in the past six years. It is for this reason that we are raising the alarm now so that Nigerians will know that people with less than sincere interest are on the verge of hijacking the APC and consequently impose a presidential candidate on Nigerians, use the popularity of the APC to win election and then capture power to the detriment of Nigerians. Therefore, the matter is no longer an internal issue of the APC.

You are all witnesses to how the APC has been plunged into needless crisis because of the overbearing activities of these people, notably among them are some governors from the northern states. At the core of this crisis is the dictatorial tendencies of these governors amidst a democracy. They run the party’s state chapters as extensions of their families or personal businesses. The actual members of the APC were left without say in the affairs of the party and that is hardly the way democracy is meant to work.

The members who were shortchanged by this overbearing intrusion of the state governors and their proxies had been hopeful that two critical committees (the Caretaker Extraordinary and Convention Planning Committee and the Reconciliation Committee) would have provided respite when the elective National Convention takes place. But alas, the convention was hijacked before it even held. These same governors and their minions have in their known fashion hijacked the entire exercise, which was proven to the world by the way they fixed a February 26, 2022, date for the event in flagrant disregard for the preferences expressed by stakeholders.

Sadly, things are now clearer. The governors in question never bothered about what stakeholders thought, wanted, or demanded, because for them the National Convention is a fait accompli. Rather than being a forum at which delegates would elect party officials in the hope of righting the wrongs done at the state chapters, the convention envisaged by these political vampires is one at which they will merely browbeat and coerce delegates to rubber stamp the criminal decisions that have taken, one that would undermine the 2023 General Elections because the party’s internal democracy in the APC would have been bastardized. Nigerians would be deprived of having an APC presidential candidate that passed the rigors of primary election.

Governor Mohammed Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa State, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi state and their other desperate allies that include serving Ministers have perfected plans to ensure that Senator Sani Musa is imposed as APC National Chairman alongside other lackeys that would be named to other positions at the convention. Senator Sani Musa would in turn deliver Bagudu as APC presidential flagbearer and Kayode Fayemi as his running mate. They have cooked up what they called “unity list” to package their evil plot as something positive and desirable for the party and the country when the contrary is the case.

We want APC stakeholders and Nigerians to know that these state governors are working against the interest interest of the country. As things stand we are collectively staring a full-blown state capture in the face as these band of governors paid a nocturnal visit to the Presidential Villa last Friday night with their purported “unity list” that they are now desperately promoting. At this point it is fair to point out that the Attorney general of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami is with them alongside a few unpatriotic ministers that are equally playing the overlords in states that are not controlled by the APC.

In addition to pressuring President Muhammadu Buhari to allow their criminal intent to materialize, these people have also perfected other plans to make mockery of the convention that has remained a source of controversy. The convention phase of their plan involves deploying state share of the Abacha Loot as bribe to induce all delegates to looking the other way and give the stamp of approval to whatever criminality is presented as the outcome of the gathering. A second leg of this phase is the arrest, intimidation and harassment of delegates that refuse to be bought over.

A further layer is that these people that are working against the nation’s nascent democracy and have sworn to bring down the APC should they fail to get their way at the convention by their interest not being enforced on all party men and women. This threat is already rattling some high-ranking members and leaders of the party, who are beginning to pivot toward allowing these governors and some ministers to have their way.

The APC Youth Development and Solidarity Forum therefore wishes to alert all APC members and delegates to the evil plot of the governors. We unequivocally remind these plotters that they cannnot impose their cronies and minions at the party’s helm of affairs against the wishes of other party men and women. The APC has too many enlightened minds to be so easily enslaved as these modern-day emperors think.

We are equally calling on All APC members to come to the proposed convention fully prepared to reject the plan by these few individuals to shortchange the rest of the country through their devilish and demonic plan for the party. Party members, who elected delegates in states chapters where genuine congresses were allowed, should closely monitor the conduct of their delegates at the convention and mete out sanctions to anyone that sells the party short in exchange for bribe.

We further call on Governor Mai Mala Buni as the chairman of the Caretaker Extraordinary and Convention Planning Committee to distance himself from this evil plot and not allow himself to be hypnotized by these marabouts keepers who in the 21st Century do not believe in Nigeria’s democracy. History would be unkind to anyone that fails to disavow the evil represented by these people that are out to destroy the APC and take the entire country down in pursuit of their selfish wishes.

We also appeal to President Buhari to be very careful with these governors and dubious Ministers in his cabinet. Mr. President should not allow them to destroy the APC as the party currently stands as the only hope of the common man. The destruction of the APC is automatically the destruction of his legacies.

Our position in the APC Youth Development and Solidarity Forum is straightforward. On internal party democracy we stand.

On Saturday, the Ebonyi State leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, expressed concern about an alleged scheme by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to arrest the party’s key stakeholders.

Tochukwu Okorie, the party’s leader, revealed this while briefing journalists in Abakaliki.

The PDP, according to Okorie, revealed intentions by the incumbent APC government in Ebonyi State to link its party chieftains and other opposition party members in the state’s 13 Local Government Areas.

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He said APC’s sole aim is to arrest and dent the hard-earned image of the opposition party members, especially as the 2023 general elections approach.

He said “We have it in good authority that on 10th of February 2022, Ebonyi State government called a meeting in which the attendees were essentially the leaders of Ebubeagu militia that operate in the state. There was a follow-up yesterday and this meeting was called to address the nagging issue of security in Ebonyi State.

“The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Ebonyi State chapter has raised an alarm following the incessant incidents of brutality and killings attributed to Ebubeagu Security operatives.

“Following the alarm we raised, a number of persons have gone to court to challenge the legality or otherwise of the law that set up Ebubeagu and other matters. It is consequent upon those developments, that the said meeting was called.

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“And in that meeting, they came out with a resolution, that going forward, the only way to stop the PDP and the opposition in the state from further challenging the brutality that Ebubeagu metes on the citizens of the state is to begin to implicate leaders of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and other stakeholders who are in position parties in crimes and phantom situations in other to demoralize and whittle the popularity and influence that the PDP has commanded in the state” he stated.

Okorie, however, vowed that his party will not fold its arm and watch the ruling APC in the state blackmail, intimidate and attack its members warning that, henceforth, it will match APC word for word and action for action.

In a swift reaction, the Publicity Secretary of the ruling All Progressive Congress in the state, Ogbuatu Simbad Chidi tasked the main opposition party in the state to desist from working against the progress of the state government.

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He said alleged that the PDP was crying wolf because Governor David Umahi dumped them and defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Ogbuatu said the governor is busy completing the massive projects his administration embarked upon and has no time to respond to the ranting of the PDP.

Hon. Biodun Oyebanji, former Secretary to the Ekiti State Government and All Progressives Congress governorship aspirant in Ekiti State, has guaranteed Ekiti people that if he is elected governor in the June 18 election, they will not be disappointed.

On Saturday, Oyebanji spoke in Ado Ekiti during a “Walk4BAO” event organized by a faction inside the APC to rally support for his candidacy, in which over 5,000 APC members took part.
According to a statement released by his Media Assistant, Raheem Akingbolu, Oyebanji described the exercise as encouraging and thanked the party members for their outpouring of affection while speaking to the massive gathering of supporters.

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“I have received several calls from members of the public and I have sighted many pictures online, detailing how the ‘Walk4BAO’ exercise went. It wowed not only me but other members of the public.

“ Without doubt, this is a selfless effort that I personally appreciate it. It has simply demonstrated that the project is a collective one and I will make sure Ekiti people do not regret supporting me”.
As early as 8am, members of the party, who had earlier signified intention through online registration started assembling at the popular Ori Apata, opposite School of Nursing, along Adebayo Road and by 9.30am, the place was full to the brim.

At exactly 10.05 am, after various security personnel and health officials had taken their positions, the walk began, and the train moved towards the JKF Campaign office along Ajilosun road, through the popular Adekunle Fajuyi Park and Oja Oba, Ado Ekiti.

The party members, who wore branded shirts, danced and waved to onlookers as the walk continued. By the time the march reached Oja Oba Market, the crowd had become bloated as a result of the way some members of public and party members joined the walk from one point to another.

Addressing Journalists about the initiative, one of the conveners of BAO Movement, Hon. Mary Oso Omotoso, said the decision to organise an early morning walk in support of Oyebanji’s candidature was born out of the group’s conviction that the candidate would positively impact Ekiti by taking the 25 years old state to another level.

According to Osho-Omotosho, “’Walk4BAO’ is an initiative of a group called ‘BAO Movement’ and it was organised to show the acceptability of Hon. Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji across various interests in the state. It will interest members of the public that today’s exercise was organised and funded without any input from either the party or the candidate,”

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Speaking further, Osho-Omotosho, who expressed her satisfaction with the turnout, said despite the low key publicity given to the online registration for the event, APC members still registered well and came out en masse.
While appreciating members for coming, the conveners urged them to get their PVC ready ahead June 18, Osho-Omotosho, added that the only way their impact could be felt is to cast votes for the candidate on the election day.