Controversies have continued to trail the ward congresses of the All Peoples Congresses held on Saturday across the country with many stakeholders calling for caution following a recent Supreme Court ruling.
While many key stakeholders called for caution against the backdrop of a pronouncement of the Supreme Court which faulted the eligibility of the Governor Malam Mai Mala Buni –led Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, the party leadership insisted on going ahead with the congresses.
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Justice Mary Peter-Odili, Ejembi Eko and Ibrahim Saulawa had, in their minority judgment on Thursday, declared that the election of the Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, should have been nullified and the appellants, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Eyitayo Jegede, declared winner of the October 20, 2020 governorship election.
Jegede, in his petition, had argued that Governor Buni, according to Section 183 of the constitution and Article 17(4) of the APC constitution, could not function both as a governor and acting national chairman of the APC concurrently.
A party source said that the number of those emboldening Governor Buni to proceed with the conduct of the ward congresses appeared overwhelming in the absence of the leader of the party, President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Addressing newsmen on Friday, a member of the caretaker committee, Professor Mamman Tahir, who incidentally is the chairman of the APC constitution drafting committee, said the leadership was not bothered by threats of litigation.
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In Ekiti State, it was gathered that parallel executives might emerge as the gladiators go to the trenches to battle for the soul of the party today.
They rejected the consensus method being pushed by some leaders and called for an election where the party members would decide their new executives.
National Daily gathered that while those in the camps of the governor were offered the form free of charge, other members were said to have obtained the form through special arrangements from the national secretariat of the party.
The forms were not made available to those not in Fayemi’s camp and these other people went ahead to arrange for the forms for their loyalists.
In Osun State, a faction of the party on Friday protested against what they called clandestine moves by some powers to hijack today’s exercise. The spokesperson for the protesters, Raji Ropo, alleged that there were plots to perpetrate fraud in today’s exercise, which he said would be resisted.
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However, the chairman of the party in the state, Prince Gboyega Famoodu, said the party had adopted consensus as a mode of the congress in all the 332 wards of the state.
There was palpable tension in Bauchi State on Friday with different splinter groups within the party doing everything to emerge victorious in today’s exercise.
Although the majority of the party members agreed on consensus as enshrined in the party’s constitution, they argued that the process must be transparent enough to be acceptable to all.
But Aminu Tukur, a political associate of a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, expressed skepticism about the arrangement for the congress in the state, considering what he described as the uncertainty in the buildup to the exercise.
In Kaduna State, the party said it was set to elect officials that would run the party in the various wards in line with the directives of the national caretaker committee.
It was gathered that the governor, Nasir El-Rufai, being the leader of the party in the state, summoned a meeting of party elders, officials and elders from all the 23 local government areas of the state to discuss the issue of new leadership at the ward, local government and state levels.
In Akwa Ibom State, controversy, on Friday, continued to trail the preparations for the conduct of today’s exercise across the 329 wards in the state.
There were allegations that the national secretary of the party, Senator John Udoedehe, had hijacked the exercise and was planning to plant his loyalists in the party’s hierarchy and structures at all levels, in line with his governorship ambition ahead of 2023.
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To this end, the faction loyal to the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Godswill Akpabio, on Friday, rose from a meeting in Uyo, denouncing the leadership of the party in the state and subsequently passed a vote of no confidence in the chairman, Dr Ita Udosen, whom they accused of playing Udoedehe’s card to the detriment of the unity of the party.
As of Friday afternoon, members of the two factions of the party in Kwara State were still operating parallel party secretariats, where their leaders were putting finishing touches to today’s ward congresses.
The two major power blocks in the party in the state said they were prepared for today’s exercise.
Political observers said there might be a repeat of the 2018 scenario whereby the two major factions of the party held parallel congresses at different venues.
Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State on Friday threatened to send anyone conducting parallel congress in the state today to prison.
Umahi made the threat during an emergency meeting of the party’s stakeholders in Abakaliki.
He charged security agencies to arrest anyone conducting parallel congress in any part of the state.