By Mua Ahmed
A faction of the All Progressives Party (APC) in Bauchi State has warned the Ward and Local Government Congress Committee of the party posted to the state to abide by the
guidelines of the party during the conduct of the congresses.
In a petition addressed to the state chairman of the APC, Alhaji Uba Ahmed Nana, on May 4, 2018, a member of the Bauchi State House of Assembly representing Lere/Bula Constituency, Mohammed Aminu Tukur, expressed worry that the state chapter of the party issued directive that only forms that come through the party office in the state would be valid for the ward election in the state contrary to the national positon.
Aminu stated that the position of the APC chairman was in contradiction
of the National office of the party that, “forms are given to state
committees on the directives of the national leadership of the party to be sold to candidates/ aspirants who may be denied such forms on the instructions of some sitting governors as applied to Bauchi State.”
It further stated: “In view of the above, you are hereby requested to allow for free flow of democratic principles without being biased”, warning, “Any breach of peace and security in this regard, you would be held responsible.”
In the same vein, Senator Nazif Sulieman Gamawa, representing Bauchi North, expressed anger over the delay in providing materials for the exercise, alleging that
there was a ploy by Governor Mohammed Abubakar to deny candidates not
loyal to him from contesting.
According to him, “Everybody is geared towards the elections. We are fully ready. We paid about N13 million for tellers for purchase of the forms but to our greatest surprise, we haven’t got the forms and it is surprising that we look for the committee that is charged with
conducting the election and they are yet to be found.
“The last meeting they had was with the governor at Government House. The meeting was supposed to be held at the party office but to our greatest surprise there was no meeting at the party secretariat.
“We were shocked that the chairman of the ward/local government congress committee, Dr Tony Macfoy, was praising the governor instead of telling us how the election was going to hold. He left his responsibility to say that the election would be controlled.
“I have been in politics for 26 years and have not heard of the word controlled election. We have paid for the forms and we believe that the forms should be given to those that will contest and up till this moment, we haven’t got them and our supporters and executive who we bought these forms for do not have these forms (nomination forms).”
Senator Gamawa alleged that the Macfoy-led committee came with two forms –one for the coordinators of the governor and the other to “whom they wanted to give to. We thought it was going to be an all-inclusive
election and the people of Bauchi are waiting but unfortunately only one group has forms that belong to the government house.”
Senator Suleiman Gamawa said that the group had to call the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, who assured: “If forms are not given to those who purchased them, then the elections stand nullified.”
The APC faction believed to be loyal to Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, was implicated.
Reacting to the allegation, Dr Tony Macfoy stated that it was untrue, saying that there are no factions in the APC: “Don’t bring us that word group. There is no division in the APC. We are one family. There are family intrigues and politics but does that mean there is a faction?”
Macfoy assured that the committee would abide by the guidelines in the conduct of the ward congress election in the state.
On the delay in mobilising materials for the exercise in the 20 local government areas to cover the 212 wards in the state, Macfoy said it
was due to their late arrival to the state on Friday, assuring that materials had been deployed for the conduct of the exercise, adding that it would hold on the stated date.
Our correspondent gathered that 27 positions are being contested in each of the 212 wards in the state bringing the total of positions to 5, 724.
