By Ezeocha Nzeh
Stakeholders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have knocked Minister of Transportation and Kaduna state Governor, Rotimi Amaechi and Nasir El’rufai respectively, over their alleged role in the widespread report of endorsement of senator Abdulahi Adamu, by President Muhammadu Buhari, as the consensus candidate for the position of national chairman, ahead of the March 26 national convention of the APC
Miffed with the endorsement allegation, a group of stakeholders, under the umbrella of APC Integrity Group has called on the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Ameachi and the governor of Kaduna State, 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), who described both officers as co joiners in the APC explained that they met the party, after it has been formed and registered through a merger of the legacy parties, accused the Minister and the governor of instigating the stories of endorsement of Senator Adamu by the President to destroy the APC.
Coordinator of the group, Malam Dawu Mohammed and Secretary Comrade Chinsom Nwakanma, in a statement they jointly signed Thursday in Abuja, described the issue of endorsement of a candidate by President Muhammadu Buhari is a fluke that should be disregarded.
The Integrity group posited that President Buhari is close to all the candidates and would not adopt any one of them without consulting others.
They alleged further that the aspiration of securing the Presidential and Vice Presidential tickets of the party through a preferred National Chairman, which the Minister of Transportation and governor of Kaduna State are pushing for was capable of destroying the party, even as they called on the legacy parties to rein in and save the party before it goes into oblivion.
In line with this, the Senator Sani Musa campaign organization on Wednesday rejected the purported endorsement report of Senator Adamu by the President.
The Organization in a statement it issued in Abuja said, “the campaign organization 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 Distinguished Senators taken shortly after Wednesday’s plenary was misconstrued by mischief makers to depict a tacit endorsement of another aspirant. The campaign organization 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. 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, also dismissed the endorsement of Senator Adamu. Mustapha in a reaction he issued 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.”
Also another governor has joined in dismissing the reported endorsement of any candidate by President Buhari.
The governor whose name was not mentioned was quoted in a report as saying: “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?
“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, and 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.”
The Integrity group in their position paper noted, “we have observed with dismay the plan by some persons to destroy the APC by trying to foist a national chairman on the party.
“We are calling on the governors and leaders of the party to speak out on the issue before such falsehood would destroy the party.
“If we allow co-joiners of APC to hijack the party, it will spell doom of our democracy.
“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.”
