Group asks Buhari to rescue Sokoto APC from ‘extinction’
The Sokoto Integrity Group of the APC, yesterday, asked President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene because the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie- Oyegun, has allegedly sworn-in the wrong executive in Sokoto State which would lead the party to extinction very soon.
There were two parallel state congresses in Sokoto but the Sokoto Integrity Group said theirs was the genuine one because it was participatory, monitored by INEC and all available positions filled through competitive elections by loyal party members.
Alhaji Sadiq Gebe emerged as state chairman and Engr. Aminu Ganda as secretary among other State Working Committee (SWC) members, in clear variance to the other congress conducted at the Government House in Sokoto where the serving Commissioner for Information, Isa Sadiq Achida emerged as state chairman of the party.
But speaking to Daily Trust in Abuja, Engr. Ganda who doubles as the coordinator, Muhammadu Buhari/ Osinbajo Dynamic Support Group, said Aggrieved members of the APC in Cross River State have asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to nullify the results of the ward, local government and state congresses.
The 22 party members led by the caucus leader, Odey Oyama, are challenging the February they were the genuine APC in Sokoto State and urged President Buhari to direct the party’s national leadership to give them the needed recognition so as to save the soul of the party.
“How can a commissioner emerge as the state chairman of the APC in a meeting held behind closed-doors at the government house?” he asked.
“We’re really afraid that unless something urgent is done, the forces in Sokoto are out to kill the APC; everyone in Nigeria knows that Governor Tambuwal is a member of the nPDP and every discerning mind knows that nPDP members have perfected plans to leave the APC.
“We are of the strong opinion that Tambuwal would move to another party with those that emerge as so-called APC officials in Sokoto State. Our prayer is that President Buhari would intervene. We are the APC right from inception and we are ready to deliver Sokoto at all levels of elections,” he said.
But the Publicity Secretary of the Tambuwal’s faction of the APC debunked the claim that the governor would leave with the new executive, saying there was no way he could dump the party he laboured for. 24, 2018 state congress with 98 delegates which produced Godwin Etim John as state party chairman, replacing former chairman and now Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Usani Uguru Usani, and the subsequent wards, local governments and state congresses of May, 2018.
The APC members are contending that the February 24, state congress which was ordered by the Deputy National Chairman of the party, Engr. Segun Oni, was not valid under sections 85 (1) and (3) of the 2010 Electoral Act and Article 12.7 of the APC Constitution.
No date has been fixed for hearing of the suits.