Crisis rocks APDA over 2019 presidential ticket
The newly registered Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA) has been enmeshed in an internal brawl over the 2019 presidential ambition of its key stakeholders.
There are reports that APDA was registered by some disenchanted members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who may likely use it as second option in 2019.
Daily Trust learnt that the crisis in APDA, which was recently registered by NEC alongside four other political parties, was as a result of a rivalry between two of its bigwigs-the National Chairman, Alhaji Mohammed Shittu, and broadcast mogul, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, over who takes custody of the party’s registration certificate.
Reliable sources within the party told our correspondent that Chief Dokpesi wanted to be a key player and power broker within the party, and had negotiated to be the chairman of the party’s board of trustees (BoT).
He also allegedly insisted on keeping the party’s certificate, even as he was yet to officially quit the PDP, one of the sources said.
“But Shittu who has a presidential ambition feels Dokpesi wants to hijack the party and become its godfather, hence the internal ruckus,” a source said.
Our correspondent observed that few days after the new party was launched in Abuja, Shittu collected the registration certificate from INEC and moved straight to the party’s temporary secretariat at Wuse II while some party stakeholders were waiting for him at the premises of the Africa Independent Television (AIT), Dokpesi’s establishment.
“He (Shittu) felt that the certificate was not meant to be anybody’s personal property and so it should be lodged at the party’s secretariat,” a source close to Shittu said.
Another player in Dokpesi’s camp said: “It is too early for him (Shittu) to parade himself as the party’s preferred or likely candidate for the election. His focus now should be on membership drive: how to mobilise and coordinate.”
But Shittu, in an interview with some journalists yesterday in Abuja, said he would not allow the impunity that ruined the PDP to be introduced into the young party.
He stressed that no one would be allowed to hijack APDA, saying godfatherism was alien to APDA’s constitution.
He, however, confirmed that he was willing to run for the presidency in 2019 on the platform of APDA so as to entrench good governance which he said the APC had failed to deliver.
Shittu dispelled rumours that former Military President, Ibrahim Babangida, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, and former PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, were behind the registration of APDA.
Shittu, a former Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), said APDA was not jittery about 2019, adding that Nigerians had tasted the “bitterness of APC.”
Our correspondent learnt that right from its formative stage, APDA had not had a board of trustees (BoT) as only names of the national working committee (NWC) and administrative staff were listed in its register that was made public.