Opposition parties say IPAC not functioning in Bauchi State

OPPOSITION political parties in Bauchi State under the aegis of Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC) has been berated for not functioning ineffectively in the political scenes of the State.

State Chairman of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Hamza Akoshi in an Interview with Newsmen in Bauchi on Sunday lamented that IPAC is not playing the role of a check in Bauchi state like other states of the country.

Hamza Akoshi said that, “IPAC is not functioning in the state because the essence of establishing the Inter Party Advisory Council was to collate or bring all the parties together ruling and opposition, unfortunately, the chairman of IPAC is from the ruling party unlike other states that the chairman is from opposition, so you don’t expect it to be effective in the state”

The PDP Chairman further alleged that for once the Chairman of IPAC in the state has not called for a meeting saying, “Since he was elected as the IPAC Chairman, no meeting has been held in the state ever since and no any invitation has reached us, we could not reached him neither because no IPAC office in the state”

He added that “It is through the Inter-Party Advisory Council that we would be able to sort out many issues that affect the state. The fellowship is supposed to bring the harmonious relationship between the parties but what is happening here is just the extension of the ruling APC.”

Corroborating the claim of the PDP, the Bauchi State Secretary of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Mahmood Babamaji said the Inter-Party Advisory Council only exists at the National Level but is not working in Bauchi state.

“In Bauchi state, IPAC is led by the ruling party, APC, therefore it is not going to be so effective because the leadership would not be opposed to any state policy or pose any form of opposition. If it were being led by any of the opposition parties they would have made a difference”, Mahmood said

But in a swift reaction to the allegations, the State Organizing Secretary of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), Abdulkakdir Gyanggyang, said that the ruling party and IPAC leadership is doing what is desirable for the state that is why no so much noise among the political parties.

He said, “the leadership of IPAC which I am a member of is working, election was conducted and all the political parties in the state were present and it was supervised by INEC, the election gave mantle of leadership to APC chairman who is doing well in terms of bringing all parties together to work towards development of the state”.

He however said that those making accusations are making baseless and unfounded accusations saying, “let them come and join hands with the IPAC leadership and move the state forward”.

Meanwhile, the IPAC Secretary in the State, Musa Mato in his reaction to the issue said that IPAC does not have full structure on the ground as not all the leadership of the parties are involved in it.

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Musa Mato who is also the state chairman of the United Nigeria People’s Party (UNPP) said that IPAC is not truly functioning because it is led by the ruling APC party chairman and doing the needful is supposed to be lead by one of the opposition parties.

He said that “the leadership do not have time to look into the democratic activities in the state, they don’t see any mistakes in the government dealings”