2 Guber Aspirants, Other Stakeholders Demand Expulsion of Adamawa APC Excos

2 Guber Aspirants, Other Stakeholders Demand Expulsion of Adamawa APC Excos

By Billy Graham Abel Yola

The crack within APC in Adamawa has continued to widen as following the controversial endorsement of governor Jibrilla for a second term by the state executives of the party.

Two gubernatorial aspirants, the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, the Senator representing Adamawa south and two former senators, have in response to the endorsement and petitioned the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, for the suspension of both the state chairman of the party, Ibrahim Bilal and the 21 local governments chairpersons of the party, over the what they described as an unconstitutional endorsement of the incumbent governor against two aspirants in the party.

The group said the action was contrary to the party's constitutions and is already causing disaffection within the members of the party in the state.

The group made the demand in a petition dated, the 17th of September, 2018 and made available to Daily Sun.

The stakeholders led by the Former SGF, Babachir Lawal, a serving senator, Ahmed Abubakar MoAllahyidi, two gubernatorial aspirants, the pioneer EFCC chairman Nuhu Ribadu, Buhari's In-law, Mahmood Halilu, former senators Abubakar Girei, Bello Tukur, APC starwart, Sadique Muhammed, endorsed the petition calling for expulsion of the state party leaders.

The petitioners said, "Your excellency sir, we are compelled to petition you on the recent activities of the Adamawa State Party Executives and the 21 Local Government Party Chairmen which occurred on the 15th September, 2018 in Yola during the Public declaration of intention to contest for the State gubernatorial seat by the incumbent Governor, Umar Mohammed Jibrilla Bindow where the State Party Chairman Mr. Ibrahim Bilal with his executives and one Mr. Babangida Talasse the representative of the Local Government APC Chairmen publicly came out to endorse one aspirant, the incumbent Governor Jibrilla Mohammed Bindow, they did not only endorse him, they proceeded to inform the Public that he is already the winner and there are no other Aspirants to be considered in Adamawa State, this singular action has since tampered with the process of internal democracy of our Party in Adamawa State where there  is supposed to be presumption of equality and fairness for all members."

The petition made available to Daily Sun further demanded that, "...The above action is contrary to the expectation of fairness and neutrality from the State Executives and this is a clear violation of section 21 (A) (xi) of our Party Constitution where it stated that “In cases of alteration of delegate lists, falsification of nomination results, and OR TAMPERING WITH THE PROCESSES OF INTERNAL DEMOCRACY OF THE PARTY, the offender shall be liable to expulsion from the Party and be prosecuted.

"We have three gubernatorial aspirants that have purchased and submitted their forms, none of them was screened out by the Party, and yet the State EXCOs have made up their mind that they can only consider one aspirant, this is contrary to the principles of natural justice and fairness as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. 

"There is no way these sets of State EXCOs and the Local Government counterparts will accord other Aspirants a level playing field in the coming primaries elections in Adamawa State."

The group maintained, "That the National Working Committee (NWC) should immediately investigate this gross misconduct as it is already causing disaffection among our members in the State, pitching one member against another due to lack of internal democracy in the Party in the State through the actions of a very biased State EXCOs and Local Government Party Chairmen.

"That the National Working Committee (NWC) after establishing the clear violation of the principle of neutrality as enshrined in our constitution and the existence of tampering with the process of internal democracy of the Party as enshrined in Section 21(A)(xi), that the NWC will hand out the necessary sanctions which may includes immediate suspension or/and expulsion.

"That the NWC should consider vetoing the State’s EXCO choice of mode of primary elections in Adamawa State in the form of “Indirect Primary Election” since they cannot provide level playing field nor fairness to the exercise.

"That, the NWC shall ensure these current Adamawa EXCOs and Local Government Party Chairmen are not allowed to conduct, organize, superintend the coming primary elections in Adamawa State for fairness, just and equitable conduct of a credible election that will stand the test of time anywhere whether in Law Courts or in Court of Public opinion the petition stated."