The ongoing internal wrangling within the Adamawa state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), if not urgently addressed, will no doubt sink the party ahead of the forthcoming general elections.
This, as noticed by The Trumpet, is coming following the alleged refusal of the sacked chairman, Alhaji Ibrahim Bilal, to vacate his position.
A vote of no confidence, it would be recalled, was on Monday passed against the chairman, by no fewer than twenty-five members of the party’s executive in the state.
High-headedness gross abuse of power and corruption to mention but just a few were among the numerous allegations observed to have been level against him.
At the time of filing this report, the embattled chairman has reiterated his determination to remain in office pending the expiration of his tenure.
His action which seems not to have gone down well with some of the party’s faithful, however, began to raise dust, as some members of the party who bared their minds to The Trumpet vowed to ditch the party should the leadership of the party at the national level fail to urgently wade in.
One of the executives who claimed to have been among those who signed the letter of the vote of no confidence passed on the chairman, said ” if our leaders at the national level insisted that Alhaji Bilal should remain as our party chairman, the only option that would be left for the majority of us is to move out of APC to other political parties.”
Reacting to his sack, Bilal, in a press statement yesterday made available to media practitioners, viewed his “purported sack” as “rapacious actions of a few elements bent at plunging a virile party into crisis
Citing the party’s guidelines on the issue he said “It needs restating not to mislead the uninformed that only the National Working Committee, of the APC, reserves the power in a dispute or crisis to remove an elected chairman of the party. ”
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Bilal, who seems not to be perturbed by the action of the state party executive, said “While we await the dust to settle on my purported removal as chairman, I am encouraged by the outpouring of Goodwill from party stakeholders who have said these grave desecration of the rule of law will never be allowed to prevail.”
He beckoned at the party’s stakeholders to disregard “the actions of motley crowd, of enemies within, acting the script of the opposition to plunge the party into crisis, at the verge of a crucial election, that their actions have further reawakened the consciousness of party faithful to be vigilant.
Adding that “Because democracy requires our eternal vigilance, otherwise we would be at the mercy of a few self-serving politicians who will always act in ways to subvert popular will.”
Vowing not to vacate his office pending the expiration of his tenure, he said “I want to urge every party member to remain calm as I still remain the chairman of the APC in Adamawa, and by Allah’s grace will serve out the remainder of my tenure, and leading our party to victory, come next year’s general election.”
“The actions of a few exco officials, who acting out of strife, disrupted the serenity so long enjoyed by the party, to serve as a circus, of my purported sack will meet the resolve of a determined followership, to never allow evil to prevail.”
Taking his time in his statement to showered encomiums Senator Elisha Abbo and other prominent members of the party whom according to him “have reacted swiftly to restate their unalloyed support of my stewardship as, a good omen” the party, in his opinion, still has all the needed capacity to wrestle power from the incumbent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration in the state.
Describing those who claimed to have thrown him out of office as ” charade by a few persons who acting like bandits broke into our serene party Secretariat to do what they did will obviously not stand must never allow them truncate the tenet of internal democracy anchored on the rule of law.
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