Adamawa: Atiku, Buhari groups battle for control of APC

Although the 2019 general elections is still three years away, the Adamawa state chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has already been engulfed in crisis over who takes charge of the party leadership.

The two warring groups are believed to be headed by season politicians in the state and they are ready to roll out political war machines to deflect their opponents and capture the party ahead of the 2019 general elections.

Former vice president Atiku Abubakar’s camp is headed by Governor Muhammadu Umaru Jibrilla, while President Muhammadu Buhari’s group is being championed by Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. David Babachir, the three senators representing Adamawa state and Alhaji Haladu Mohammed, (Sardauna Jimeta) a major financier of governor Jibrila’s election.

A former governor, Murtala Nyako, an unrepentant supporter of Buhari, constituted the present leadership of the party in the state. Nyako carefully selected the members of the APC executive with Senator Binta Garba Maci, as the state chairperson. All Atiku’s candidates including the present House of Representative member representing Jada, Toungo, Mayo-belwa and Genye constituency, Comrade Abdularazak Namdas, lost the party leadership elections.

One week to the presidential election, some of the executive members of the party that were sympathetic to Atiku decamped to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) including the APC state publicity secretary Mr. Phineas Padio. The calculation then was to give the former President Goodluck Jonathan an edge over Buhari at the poll and to also prove that APC under Nyako cannot win the state for Buhari.

On the day, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the governor as the winner of the poll, he told the world that he became the governor on the platform of Nyako’s APC structure and he assured the party executive that his loyalty will ever remain with the present leadership of the party which he said made it possible for him to scale through all the top political hurdles.

However, immediately after the governor took oath of office it appeared that he swallowed his words and switched his loyalty to Atiku Abubakar, the man that presented a candidate against him at the party primaries. The last APC governorship primary was the second time Atiku would battle the governor at party primaries with his candidate.

The alleged change of the governor’s loyalty to Atiku baffled many politicians in the state who wondered why the governor will dump Nyako/Buhari camp, the group that give him not only APC ticket but victory at the poll. To support his decision with political evidence, the governor told the world in December last year that he dumped Nyako because Atiku gave him N500 million naira for his campaign a defence that was still creating sleepless political night for the governor’s supporters.

In a dramatic move to dismantle Buhari’s APC leadership in the state preparatory to 2019 general elections, which it is alleged that Atiku has interest to contest, the governor two weeks ago appointed his APC state chairman without the conduct of any election. The late APC state chairman Alhaji Shaibu Yamusa’s office before his death last week, was allegedly broken into and taken over by one Mr. Dimas Ezra, the APC vice chairman Adamawa central, while the late chairman was attending a meeting in Numan his home local government area.

Since the governor took over the mantle of leadership in the state, APC has been facing challenges due to lack of funding and it was alleged that the plan was to allow the party to crumble financially and go into comatose so that the Atiku group can set up their structures.

Haladu a strong loyalist of Buhari based in Abuja, took over the challenge of funding the party. In December he bought a brand new Prado jeep for the late APC chairman and also gave out over 18 cars and cash to other party officials to boost their operations. The late chairman was without a car before Haladu rescued him. Haladu and the three senators are the Buhari camp foot soldiers with the backing of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Nyako loyalists, the national secretarial of APC and some sympathy from the Adamawa elites whom the governor accused of working against his administration.

The Atiku group headed by the governor, has support from members of his cabinet, the speaker of Adamawa state House of Assembly, Alhaji Mijinywa Kabiru.

Speaking on the crisis, the deputy national vice chairman of APC Mr. Boss Mustapha, told The Guardian that APC Adamawa was not in crisis and that the party has only one chairman who he said died recently in Kano and that there was no other person acting in his capacity.

“Adamawa APC is intact as far as we at the national secretariat are concerned, the acting state chairman of the party died last week and a new acting chairman has not been appointed, so I don’t know the person you say that is calling himself chairman of APC in Adamawa. Maybe he is in another party but certainly not my party APC of which I am the deputy national vice chairman and am from Adamawa state. So anything concerning my state I must know and there is nothing like faction in Adamawa APC”, he stated.

Senator Abdulaziz Nyako, representing Adamawa central who spoke in Yola recently when he visited APC secretariat on the governor’s battle to take over the party for Atiku, appealed to the governor to concentrate on issues that can improve the lives of the people instead
of political issues.

On the controversy that the three senators’ visit was generating in the Atiku’s camp, the youthful senator described the insinuations as not only childish, but that those that are reading different meaning from the visit should come out and announce to the world the
assistance they have given the party since the elections ended.

“So our visit should not have any controversy. Just after our visit, perhaps one would say, the issue of party chairmanship came up just the week after we visited the party. I believe that is a wrong way to react.

The senator who blamed 2019 agitators over the APC crisis in the state, appealed to them to give democracy a chance to grow and asked those that are fanning the embers of crisis by introducing issues of 2019 elections when the present government is less than one year in
office, to stop campaigns that were capable of derailing the operations of government.

He said that he has no time to fight anybody over the structures of the party, but he would only support his party to promote the party activities and ensure that more people join APC in the state. The senator advised those that are afraid of others in the party to befriend the party by supporting the party, pointing out that he is ready to display his total loyalty to his party.

However Padio, who decamped to PDP and later returned to APC said that there was no crisis in the party and that the Governor remained the leader of the party, adding: “As far as the party constitution is concern the governor is the leader of the party and the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, is supervising the activities to ensure that the state wing of the party is working smoothly, so there is no division in Adamawa APC.”

Padio claimed that the late Yamusa was removed from office by one-third majority of the executive members and that Mr. Dimas Ezra, was thereafter appointed as the new acting chairman of the party.

“There is no other party chairman in the state apart from Ezra. The Abuja based politicians are Abuja APC members; we in Adamawa are Adamawa APC members. It is strange to me for people to say that late Yamusa was the acting chairman, we followed due process in removing him and Ezra is now running the party,” he alleged.

With the crisis rocking the party, will the governor conduct local governments elections with Buhari men in charge of the party? When will APC conduct elections in Adamawa to fill all the vacant positions in Adamawa state chapter of APC? The battle is on, will Haladu and his battalions capture Atiku’s men and disarmed them politically?

These questions are begging for answers. As the battle rages, the fears are palpable that very soon it would start recording political casualties both in the state and at federal level.