Piqued by purported endorsement of the former governor of Nasarawa state, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, by President Muhammadu Buhari as the consensus candidate for the national chairmanship position in the March 26 national convention, the APC Integrity Group has called on the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and Kaduna state governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai not to destroy the party with their ambitions.
The group made up of members of the legacy parties – Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and All Peoples Grand Alliance (APGA) – accused the Minister and the governor of instigating the stories of endorsement of Senator Adamu.
A statement in Abuja by the Coordinator, Malam Dawu Mohammed, and Secretary Comrade Chinsom Nwakanma, the story of endorsement of a candidate by President Muhammadu Buhari was a fluke and should be discarded.
The group posited that President Buhari was close to all the candidates and would not adopt any one of them without consulting others.
According to them, the aspiration of securing the presidential and vice presidential tickets of the party through a preferred national chairman, which Amaechi and El’ Rufai were pushing for was capable of destroying the party.
Calling on the legacy parties to save the party before it goes into oblivion, they also called on the national chairmanship candidates, North Central governors and possibly national leadership of the party to reach a consensus among candidates and if this failed, prepare for election in the convention.
Also, the Senator Sani Musa campaign organisation Wednesday rejected the purported endorsement report of Senator Adamu by the President.
In a statement, it said, “the campaign organisation of Senator Mohammed Sani Musa, a leading aspirant for position of the National Chairman of the APC, has urged its teeming supporters across the country to ignore the news making the rounds on the purported endorsement of a fellow aspirant by Senator Mohammed Sani Musa, today at the National Assembly.
“This is a blatant misinformation and should be ignored. What turned out to be a group picture of Senators taken shortly after Wednesday’s plenary was misconstrued by mischief makers to depict a tacit endorsement of another aspirant.
“The campaign organisation notes with disappointment the brazen desperation of the supporters of the aspirant in subjugating their selfish interest at the expense of national interest, party loyalty and the long-term stability of Nigeria’s democracy.
“We urge our supporters to remain calm, focused and law abiding. As reiterated earlier, let us continue to exercise more patience as we await further directives from President Muhammadu Buhari and the leaders of our great party.”
Another candidate, Alhaji Saliu Mustapha, has also dismissed the endorsement of Senator Adamu. Mustapha in a reaction he gave through his media aide, Dapo Okubanjo, said the race is still open.
Okubanjo in his words said: “Mallam Saliu Mustapha is a core party man, so he expects that once a decision is taken on a matter as important as that of a consensus candidate, it will be passed on by the party leadership through official channels.
“And until that is done, he believes that the race is still open to all contenders who showed interest in being the next National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC).”
In the same vein, another governor has dismissef endorsement of any candidate by President Buhari.
The governor whose name was not mentioned was quoted in a report as saying: “I read reports that governors tried to make Mr. President drop former Governor Adamu as the favoured candidate for the office of APC national chairman.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. Is it possible for presidential spokesman to say his boss has no preferred candidate on Monday, and then we the governors will be begging Mr. President on Tuesday to drop a non-existent candidate?”
Further, the governor said, “To begin with, nothing close to what your people reported happened. If indeed Mr. President endorsed any candidate, such would have been disclosed during the after-meeting briefing by our chairman, the Kebbi State governor, H.E. Atiku Bagudu.
“Mr. President is not a dictator. But he’s also not a puppet. If he is interested in any particular candidate, he would tell the governor of such candidate so. He wouldn’t just foist the candidate as such for the position of national chairman, not of the President’s ward.”
The Integrity group in their position paper said, “we have observed with dismay the plan by some persons to destroy the APC by trying to foist a national chairman on the party.
“This would not be the first time that a Minister and a governor would be accused of obtaining a false signature from the President through his Personal Assistant (PA).
“We are calling on the governors and leaders of the party to speak out on the issue before such falsehood would destroy the party.
“As an Integrity group we are not against any candidate but think it would be logical that a member of the legacy parties emerged as National Chairman, as had been suggested by the former governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha.
“If we allow co-joiners of APC to hijack the party, it will spell doom of our democracy.
“We also call on the handlers of Mr. President and Personal Assistants to be circumspect in what they do with some persons, as their actions can be injurious to the country and the party that the President leads.
“We sincerely believe that for us to have a formidable government, we must have a formidable party, therefore, we object to a leadership foisted on the party by few for their Presidential and Vice Presidential ambitions.
“The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Ameachi or any other person has a right to support a candidate, as we have seen in some reports on how he (Ameachi) brought in Senator Abdullahi Adamu to the race, but foisting him on the President or the party in whatever guise is what we frowned at, as that could be a plot that is very destructive to the APC.
“We expect this issue to be resolved and resolved amicably by the leadership of the party, which include the Tripartite Committee.”
“Also, we expect that the recently signed electoral act should become operational by Ministers or political appointees with interest in Conventions or congresses to resign.”
