It was more confusion that trailed the conduct of last Saturday’s ward congresses election of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bauchi State as a faction of the party loyal to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara on Sunday conducted a parallel election across the state to elect leaders of the party.
It is believed that the situation may further deepen the political gulf between the supporters of the state Governor, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar on one hand and majority members of the National Assembly from the state on the other hand thus putting the APC in the state in a precarious position ahead of the 2019 general elections.
One of the leaders of the other faction, Senator Nazif Suleiman Gamawa representing Bauchi North senatorial district accused the ward congress committee led by Dr Tony Macfoy of “bias and doing the bidding of Governor Abubakar thereby violating the guidelines of the APC in the process”.
Suleiman Gamawa who addressed Journalists late on Sunday night at his residence in Bauchi, said: “Macfoy’s declaration that the ward congresses election his committee conducted on Saturday was free and fair was a big lie.
He alleged that “What he did was unfortunate and very sad. APC is a party that we are proud of. It is a party that is supposed to be a party of justice and we expected nothing better than”.
The Senator added that “There was no election on Saturday 5th of May. You can find out from INEC that is supposed to monitor that election and they will tell you there was no election. The election took place today the 6th of May. All they did was that they went into their rooms and wrote results”.
He further declared that What we did today (Sunday, May 6th) was that we came out and we insisted that there must be the election when we got the forms after struggling with them because initially, they didn’t want to give us that forms”.
“They gave us the forms on Saturday at about 2:00 pm but the guideline says within 24 we should return those forms. So we took the forms, gave them to the people and those people endorsed the forms and brought the forms and on Saturday we went out and were ready but the congress committee members refused to come out to the venue of the election. They just went and wrote results because the INEC, SSS and Police were not there”
Senator Nazif Gamawa also said that his group was calling for justice and fairness alleging that “it is impossible for the Governor’s group to receive two forms –one for his coordinator and the other for his commissioners”.
He said, “Our fear is that the elections were not done in the open, maybe at the end of the day, maybe it is the Governor’s coordinators that want to turn themselves to be executives of the party.”
The politician insisted that his group bought forms for the people that had held the party for four years and that after filling those forms they expected that election would be held as scheduled but the committee refused to come to the localities to witness the election.
He further said that his group is awaiting the arrival of the Appeal Committee in the state assuring that they would follow all necessary due processes and legal means of ensuring that those old executives who have held APC for the last four years prevailed.
In the same vein, the member representing Dass constituency in the Bauchi State House of Assembly, Maryam Garba Bagel described the conduct of the congresses on Saturday as a sham because according to her it did not follow the rules and regulations laid down by the national secretariat of the party.
Maryam Garba Bagel while speaking to our correspondent on phone alleged that candidates loyal to their faction of the APC were initially denied the forms despite the fact that money was paid into the bank and tellers obtained as directed by the national secretariat of the APC.
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She added that because they got the forms and other materials late on Saturday they did not participate in the exercise but held theirs on Sunday in line with the guidelines of the party which allow for the conduct of the congresses not later than Monday.
The lawmaker pointed out that the congresses by their faction were held on Sunday across the state because according to her it is the right of the people to elect those to lead them but not an imposition by the powers that be.
But in a swift reacting, chairman of the congresses committee, Tony Macfoy said he had no knowledge of a parallel ward congresses election in the state and advised all aggrieved members of the APC in the state to seek the conflict resolution mechanism of the party through the Appeal Committee.
Tony Macfoy who declared the ward congresses elections conducted by his committee on Saturday as peaceful, free and fair, said, “I have done my best. There was no Rofo-Rofo, there were no placards, there was no I go die oo. Every result was collated in this place (APC state secretariat Bauchi)”.
He added that “the process was not done in the hotel or anybody’s bedroom but where I am seated now and anybody can say that my people are here. The people of Bauchi State have made me proud and made my job easier. The election was relatively peaceful”
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