2023 Poll: APC crisis deepens in Adamawa over guber ticket

The crisis rocking the Adamawa State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has worsened over an alleged plot by wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari to hijack the party structure.

Some aggrieved party chieftains, including Senator Dahiru Binani, warned that if the first lady is allowed to have her way, the party would surely lose the 2023 poll in the state.

The party chieftains accused Mrs Buhari of insisting on taking full control of the party structure in order to install her younger brother, Mr. Mohammed Halilu Modi, as next governorship candidate of the party in 2023.

They claimed that at the party’s just-concluded local council congress in the state, the first lady used her influence to intimidate perceived political opponents of her brother, such as Senator Dahiru Binani, Senator Mohammed Jibrilla Bindow (former Governor of the state) and Senator Ishaku Abbo (who represents Adamawa North Senatorial Zone) in the Senate, in a bid to sieze control of the party structure.

It would be recalled that in 2019, the party lost the governorship contest to the incumbent and member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Ahmadu Fintiri, over alleged power tussle between the first lady and Bindow, Binani and other opponents in the quest to make her brother governor.

The aggrieved members claimed that Mrs Buhari is working in cahoots with the former Vice-Chairman, North East Zone, Comrade Mustapha Salihu, and the party’s Financial Secretary, Mr. Saidu Naira to achieve her aim.

They claimed that most of the names from the ward and local congress congresses sent to the national secretariat of the APC were altered by the quartet in Abuja, resulting in mounting court cases challenging the alterations.

Already, chieftains of the party are warming up to dump APC, if the crisis is not resolved in tandem with the dictates of the party’s constitution.

One of the aggrieved chieftains, who spoke to The Guardian on condition of anonymity, said: “If this is allowed to happen, it is the APC that will be the big loser again in 2023, just like it happened in 2019.

“The way they are going, they can only help PDP and governor Fintiri to win reelection in 2023,” a senior official stated.

“Incidentally, the current manipulation in Adamawa is going on at a time the general feeling in the state is that the governorship seat should rotate to another zone outside Adamawa Central, to engender fairness and give a sense of belonging to all the geopolitical zones in the former Gongola State.

“Although, it is argued that the Central Zone has yet to produce a governor and it is believed it’s the turn of the zone to do so in 2023, APC stakeholders are opposing her position on the grounds that her zone has been producing Secretary to the Government of the Federation since 2015.

“This is in addition to the fact that as First Lady of the Federation and coming from the Central Zone as well, the feeling is that the zone has had its fair share of power equation, and should hands off the governorship seat for another zone in 2023.

“Similarly, the Northern Senatorial Zone has produced a governor for a record six times, and the feeling is that the zone has also benefitted adequately.
Such fairness can never be achieved, if the congresses are manipulated against the wishes and aspirations of the people of the state.

“There is a serious problem brewing in APC, which if not resolved quickly, may cost the party the seat of governor again, like it did in 2019.

“Now, during the local council congresses, this was what happened. While the election of party officials of Yola-South, the home local council of Binani and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, was held at the party’s state secretariat in Jimeta amid heavy security operatives, as against the Yola South party secretariat, Bindow and Abbo did not even know where the congresses of Mubi North and Mubi South, their home councils, took place till date.

“Similarly, security chiefs in the state were threatened with sack, if they did not cooperate by facilitating Modi’s aspiration.”