Some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) acting through the Progressives Right Group (PRG) yesterday moved to defend the party’s national vice chairman (North West), Salihu Moh Lukman, in the midst of the party’s leadership crisis.
The group recalled that it had warned against Adamu’s selection as APC national chairman, claiming that the former Nasarawa governor “is not a true party man at heart.”
The group’s stance runs counter to the APC’s national legal adviser’s recommendation that Lukman be expelled from the party.
The legal adviser had demanded Lukman’s expulsion for filing a lawsuit in court against the national chairman and national secretary for failing to convene a meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) and provide a financial report.
However, in a statement issued yesterday by the PRG’s national convener, Ibrahim Dikko Yusuf, the group vowed to resist any attempt by the national chairman and some NWC members to silence Lukman and ignore the pertinent issues raised.
“This conspiracy to stifle internal democracy by spawning candidates was as high up as the Party’s National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adam himself,” Yusuf stated. Many of us warned him that he was not a true party member. A man who was stirring up trouble in his home state against a sitting governor.”
Read Also: JAMB will start releasing 2023 UTME results on Tuesday
A man who caused us to lose important members such as Ahmed Aliyu Wadada. He defected to the SDP and was elected.
“Recently, our great party has been engulfed by a crisis of confidence at its highest administrative level, the National Working Committee (NWC).” It is on record that some well-meaning members of the party have raised the need for the party to toe the line of progressivism by ensuring strict adherence to the party’s constitutional provisions; allowing all organs of the party to function; and engaging party leaders and members in regular meetings olive to the vision of the party’s founding fathers.
“The question of accountability. This is one key factor that distinguished the APC from other parties in 2015 and earned us a victory over the incumbent PDP administration at the polls, but over time, particularly in the last three years, our party has been infiltrated by the PDP syndrome, and our leaders have resorted to impunity and flagrant disobedience of the party constitution.
“In the run-up to the National Convention that produced the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led NWC, it will be remembered that our National Leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, directed a refund of nomination fees to all aspirants who voluntarily stepped down for the party’s consensus arrangement. A year later, it is unfortunate that the NWC has failed to honor this directive, despite being direct beneficiaries of the arrangement.” No one has been paid their money back.
Read Also: May Day: Treat workers with dignity, CAN urges FG, employers.
The group claimed that the Adamu-led NWC is still owing members on party assignments despite the huge revenues accrued to the party from the sale of nomination forms to aspirants for the recently concluded general elections.
