Again Nafada shuns Gombe APC excos inauguration
‘Buhari can’t be blackmailed out of power’
Increasing criticism and gang up will not force President Muhammadu Buhari out of the contest in the event he decides to go for a second term, a member of the APC campaign team in 2015 said yesterday.
Malam Mohammed Lawal who served as Deputy Director, Coordination/ Implementation of the APC Presidential Campaign Council in 2015, which worked for the emergence of President Buhari, said many people and groups were uncomfortable with President Buhari’s ‘pro-masses’ approach to governance, hence were deploying various tricks and sense of insecurity to undermine his popularity.
Speaking on phone at the weekend, Lawal, a board member of the
The National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Mai Mala Buni, at the weekend inaugurated state executive officials to run the affairs of Gombe State chapter of the party.
The newly inaugurated executives were Mr Nitte Amangal, chairman; Gabani Ado, deputy chairman; Adamu Abubakar, secretary, and Abayomi Williams, legal adviser.
Others included Rose Danjuma (women leader), Ibrahim Sabo (public relations officer), Kawu Mohammed Masu (youth leader) and Danladi Shuaibu (ex-officio).
The inauguration followed the internal crisis that had been rocking the party since the 2015 elections.
Speaking shortly after the inauguration, Buni called on the NNPC, said: “We are in politics; we would tackle any opposition, any group or gang up, be it a coalition or third force or whatever.”
Mohammed said it would be difficult to oust a sitting president on the pages of newspapers and denied that key people in the APC were planning to leave for the opposition.
“Now, who among the APC leaders enjoying the comfort of government either as an appointee or elected official could afford to go and fish in a deep, dark, torturous and murky waters of political uncertainty?
“But I wish them good luck. It is just that we are not bragging and shouting the way they (opposition) are doing but the time would soon come. We don’t want to distract the government for now; we want the government to concentrate on doing what it has been elected to do but very soon we would devote our attention one hundred per cent to politicking,” he said.
Lawal also accused exPresident Obasanjo of attempting to sabotage the administration of President Buhari.
“What he is doing is not the way to express patriotism; Obasanjo is just fuelling tension and causing a lot of apprehension.
“He is still feeling Buhari era is like late Yar’adua era or Goodluck Jonathan era that he planted. We would not fold our hands this time around. We would fight back strongly. If the Federal Government is so careful in speaking out, we the supporters of President Buhari would not sit down and look,” he said. party members to support the newly inaugurated officials to wrestle power from the ruling PDP come 2019.
In a brief remark, the leader of the party in the state, Senator Muhammad Danjuma Goje, thanked the APC national secretariat for rescuing Gombe APC and ensuring the election of new officials to steer the affairs of the party.
Goje affirmed his loyalty to the party and called on all the gubernatorial hopefuls on the APC platform to unite and play politics without bitterness in order to ensure that it succeeded in dislodging the PDP from power in 2019.
“We suffered and sacrificed a lot for this party. Therefore, I am calling on all of you nurturing to contest for the governorship seat to cultivate the spirit of unity, because we would not allow anyone to jeopardize our efforts and lose the forthcoming 2019 gubernatorial election,” Goje warned.
Senator Usman Bayero Nafada and some of his loyalists, who earlier boycotted the October 21, 2017 congress that ushered in the new officials, were again conspicuously absent at the inauguration.
The notable APC bigwigs who attended the congress included Senator Goje, Deputy Senate Leader, Bala Ibn Na’Allah, two members of the House of Representatives, Yunusa Ustaz and Aishatu Dukku, the party’s gubernatorial candidate in the 2015 elections, Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya, a former minister of Transport, Senator Idris Abdullahi Umar, Alhaji Umar Farouk Bamusa, Alhaji Umaru Kwairanga and other party chieftains.