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  • 2027: Adamawa APC rallies for Tinubu, welcomes high-profile defectors

    2027: Adamawa APC rallies for Tinubu, welcomes high-profile defectors

    Thousands of All Progressives Congress (APC) members from across Adamawa State converged in Yola on Thursday for a massive support rally in honour of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, endorsing him for a second term in office.

    Party faithful from all 21 local government areas marched through the streets in a colourful procession that began at the iconic Unity Bridge in Jimeta and ended at Muna Hotel in Dougirei, after stopping at the party’s new secretariat on Scope Road. The rally was followed by a stakeholders’ meeting, where the party received thousands of high-profile defectors.

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    Among the notable figures who officially joined the APC were former Deputy Governor Crowther Seth, prominent businessman and philanthropist Abdulrahman Haske, former Chief Judge of Adamawa State Ambrose Mamman, and ex-Speaker of the State House of Assembly Gibson Nathaniel.

    North East APC Vice Chairman, Comrade Mustapha Salihu, said the event was organised to express appreciation for President Tinubu’s achievements, reforms, and developmental programs over the past two years.

    The gathering also saw party leaders pass a vote of confidence on National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, applauding his efforts in combating insecurity and restoring Nigeria’s global image.

    Other speakers, including former Education Minister Prof. Tahir Mamman, APC State Chairman, Barr. Shuaibu Idris and former Governor Bala James Nggilari praised Tinubu’s leadership, expressing confidence that the temporary hardships caused by reforms would soon give way to national prosperity.

  • Shun protests, support Tinubu’s promising reforms, Adamawa APC tells Nigerians

    Shun protests, support Tinubu’s promising reforms, Adamawa APC tells Nigerians

    The Adamawa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has advised Nigerians to avoid any form of protests and instead support the promising reforms being implemented by President Bola Tinubu.

    High-powered stakeholders from across the state met at the state Secretariat of the party in Yola and emphasized that Tinubu deserves the support of all citizens for his reforms to take shape.

    They urged Nigerians to disregard “conflict entrepreneurs” urging them to protest against the president, especially since protests could turn violent and lead to dire consequences.

    The APC stakeholders also cautioned Nigerians to be wary of warmongers, who might flee the country and leave them to deal with the aftermath of any violence they incite.

    They insisted that peaceful dialogue is the only sure solution to Nigeria’s challenges, not unpredictable mass protest or confrontation.

    Read Also: Lagos students’ distance self from proposed August protest

    The APC state chairman, Idris Shuaibu said President Tinubu’s reforms, like many far-reaching policies, come with some bitter outcomes which would subsequently usher in anticipated benefits.

    “The president’s valiant strides will surely put the nation on a recovery path,” the APC chairman said.

    Also making a case against the planned nationwide protest, the state secretary of the APC, Dr Raymond Chidama said the North as a whole would not be doing a good thing to protest against a President Tinubu the region voted so massively to help put in office.

    Chidama said the subsidy removal and the floating of the naira piloted by Tinubu’s government are inevitable despite their harshness because these policies were the saving grace of the Nigerian economy which faced imminent collapse.

    Also speaking, the state organizing secretary of the APC, Mustapha Ribadu, said Nigeria is facing challenges that resulted from past years of poor leadership that cannot be addressed without some pains.

  • Adamawa APC endorses Lawan, Gbajabiamila for NASS leadership

    The Adamawa State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has taken its stand over which candidates to support to man leadership positions in the incoming ninth National Assembly.

    While revealing its position, the party said it has thrown its weight behind the candidatures of Sen. Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila for the leadership of the national assembly.

    The Organising Secretary of the party, Alhaji Ahmed Lawal, said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yola, that the decision of the party leadership at the national level to endorse the pair was logical.

    According to him, Lawan is already the Senate Majority Leader while Gbajabiamila is the House Leader.

    “As far as Adamawa APC is concern, the decision of the national leadership of the party is final, hence party supremacy.

    “The endorsement of Ahmed Lawal and Femi Gbajabiamila for national leadership is logical since they are leaders of the APC caucus in the national assembly.

    “All members of the APC irrespective of their status should abide by the decision of our party leadership.

    “Any decision taken by Adams Oshiomhole, and Ahmed Tinubu, who is the national leader of our dear party is in the best interest of the APC in particular and the nation in general.”

  • SGF brokers reconciliation in Adamawa APC

    The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, has said that the conflict among some members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa State will be resolved and Governor Mohammed Jibrilla Bindow will be re-elected to do his second term.

    Conflict persists in the APC in the state, with notable names like Nuhu Ribadu and Ahmed Modi, both of who lost to Bindow in last October’s governorship primaries yet to reconcile with Bindow who got the ticket, but

    Boss Mustapha told newsmen in Yola Sunday night that he had been holding reconciliation meetings with all stakeholders and would continue to do so until all contending issues were resolved and everyone brought under one APC to rally support for Bindow as Nigerians go to the polls this Saturday for the governorship election.

    “We had a stakeholders meeting in my office in Abuja and my coming here this evening is in furtherance of that effort. One thing I can assure you is that we are coming out stronger, focused and more resolved to retain Adamawa as an APC state,” the SGF said.

    He added that he and lots of the leaders in the APC family had tasted the bitter pills of electoral defeats and would work hard to avoid a defeat in Adamawa.

    He said the APC lost Adamawa State by a slight margin in the presidential election only because the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presented a candidate (Atiku Abubakar) who is an indigene of the state and had established himself as a strong political force.

    “Atiku Abubakar has been a constant feature in the politics of this state for decades. He served eight years as vice president, whether we like to take it or not. He has a political family in Adamawa State, Boss Mustapha said, adding that the APC did not do too badly despite Atiku’s factor as APC’s loss was by only some 32,000 votes, unlike in Buhari’s own state, Katsina, where APC won by some 900,000 votes.

    Answering a question on his position and how Adamawa has benefitted from it, Boss Mustapha said his appointment in the first place was by the special grace of God.

    He said, “I am most grateful for the opportunity I have had to be the SGF. I am not the mist qualified. I ascribe my ascendance to that office to the grace of God and the favour extended by President Muhammadu Buhari to Adamawa State. I told my staff that I didn’t come into the office with any special skill. I have only one qualification: the grace of God on my life. And every morning I ask him to help me and I depend on him to run my office.”

    He added that his appointment from Adamawa State to replace his predecessor who also comes from Adamawa was a privilege extended to the state by President Muhammadu Buhari, and that he had succeeded in using his office to influence the rehabilitation of roads across Adamawa State, of extending the planned Abuja-Gombe dual carriage way from Gombe to Yola, and of extending the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail track to Yola and other state capitals, among other things.

  • Adamawa APC governorship aspirant steps down for Aisha’s brother Ahmed

    An All Progressives  Congress (APC) governorship aspirant  in Adamawa State, Mr Markus Gundiri  yesterday stepped down for  President Muhammadu Buhari’s in-law, Alhaji Mahmood Halilu Ahmed.

    Gundiri also handed over his political structure to Ahmed in what is seen as radically brightening Ahmed’s chances.

    The immediate past  Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Babachir Lawal who leads the intra-APC opposition to Governor  Jubrilla Bindow said  the development was a fresh indication that the governor’s return quest   would fail.

    The former SGF said on the occasion of the joining of forces by Ahmed and Gundiri held in  Kwambla that the exit door  was now wide open  for Bindow.

    Gundiri said his decision to  step  down for Ahmed was a personal sacrifice to ensure that Bindow does  not return to Government House and thus open the way for the people of the state to enjoy the dividends of democracy.

    Ahmed commended Gundiri for his gesture,  saying  the Bndow government has been unfair to the people of the state.

    He said: “the present government is anti-indigenous contractors.

    “I challenge anyone in government to name one indigenous company that has been awarded contract under this administration.

    “Workers have been reduced to beggars because their entitlements are not paid to them.”

    The APC ticket will now be contested by Bindow , Ahmed and Former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu

    Meanwhile, ex-EFCC chairman, Alhaji Nuhu Ribadu, yesterday warned that the All Progressives Congress (APC)  may not have candidates for  next year’s  elections in Adamawa State if it goes ahead to conduct its primary election through the indirect mode as against the direct mode preferred by the majority of the aspirants.

    Ribadu who is seeking the APC governorship ticket also said that any aspirant who is afraid of facing  party members in a direct primary is not prepared to face the people of the state in the 2019 elections.

    Ribadu spoke to reporters after he was screened by  the National Working Committee of the party in Abuja.

    He said the process that produced  the current leadership of the party in Adamawa State is now  being challenged in court, pointing out that if the court invalidates the process, whatever action taken by the leadership will be null and void.

    He claimed that  the majority of aspirants for various  positions in the state prefer  the direct primary mode, which he described as the  best process.

    He wondered why anyone  should be afraid of facing the people in a direct primary .

    Ribadu said: “The governor is an aspirant and there are other aspirants who are also contesting. The rest of the aspirants said they want direct primary.

    “It is not just governorship, but the Senatorial and House of Representatives.

    “Majority of those who are contesting or who want to contest want  direct primary.

    “Adamawa State is one of the states going through difficult court cases and I don’t think that the party will allow itself to go ahead and do indirect primary when there is a pending court case that is challenging the legality of the state executive.

    “In the  event that the court declares the state executive illegal, then the whole thing that was done by that executive will be a nullity and the party will end up in trouble and will not have candidates to go into the general election.

    “The issue of direct primary is to determined by the National Working Committee and will come up with a position. We are waiting, believing that they will look into the case of Adamawa and see that it will be in the best interest of the party for us to have direct primary.”

  • Adamawa APC adopts Bindow as gov candidate

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa State yesterday adopted Governor Muhammadu Bindow as its governorship candidate.

    APC Chairman in the state, Alhaji Ibrahim Bilal, spoke at the party secretariat in Yola when Bindow formally declared his intention to run for second term.

    Bilal said all the 138 executives of the party from state to ward level endorsed Bindow.

    The state executives had earlier opted for indirect primaries to pick candidates for 2019, an option widely condemned.

    But Bilal said the state excos was ready to ensure Bindow’s victory under direct or indirect option.

    The decision might have sealed the fate of brother of President Buhari’s wife Mahmoud Halilu otherwise known as Modi.

    He visited the secretariat on Monday to formally declare his governorship aspiration.

    A former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Nuhu Ribadu also picked the nomination form.

    But he was yet to make his formal declaration before the party at the state level as at yesterday.

    Speaking at the APC secretariat, Bindow gave himself a pass mark in the last

  • …As Adamawa APC brutalises with sarcasm

    …As Adamawa APC brutalises with sarcasm

    WHILE pundits were still speculating about last Thursday’s meeting inside Aso Villa between the vice president and Sen Sheriff, the Adamawa State chapter of the party had in fact earlier begun a furious but puzzling political intermediation of its own. Still smarting from the determined but evidently vexatious statements of the Women Affairs minister, Aisha Alhassan, and her mentor, ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar, against President Buhari, the state’s APC organising secretary, Ahmed Lawan, told the media with brutal sarcasm that the party’s state working committee would wade in and find out what was amiss.

    According to him, “The utterances of the former vice-president only portrayed him as a man whose sole motive for contributing to the success of the party is to profit from it, whilst it ought to have been selfless. We all sacrificed, nobody wanted to get something from it. If you want to contest, you wait for 2019 to test your popularity. If you are very popular, the people will listen to you and vote for you. There’s no need for any utterance which is capable of portraying the party in bad light. We are very surprised that the former vice-president came out to say the party didn’t reward him, which is like saying the party didn’t reward him enough. We all sacrificed, nobody did it because we wanted to get something out of it.”

    Apart from Adamawa APC not being united, it is also clear that the larger APC is beginning to deal cruelly and surreptitiously with its enemies as they identify themselves. The former vice president has presented himself for target practice. They will take potshots at him. Sen Alhassan has opened her flanks; they will attempt to outmanoeuvre her. A titanic battle is definitely afoot in the APC in the next few months as those shut out by the president after the electoral victory of 2015 attempt valiantly to reclaim the party. If the revolutionaries are squeamish, the president, who feigns indifference to a second term, and his men who are determined to press him into re-election mode, will crush them. There are, however, no guarantees that even if Aso Villa should get the upper hand, it would not be pyrrhic victory. It is not only the political future of the president and his men that is under threat, even the whole future of the APC itself is also in jeopardy. Once the battle is joined sometime in 2018, and the combatants are arrayed in battle, it will be possible for military analysts to predict the sanguinary direction of that phony APC war.

  • Adamawa APC may not back Atiku in 2019, says secretary

    The Secretary of the Adamawa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Saidu Naira, yesterday said the branch does not have any other presidential candidate for 2019 Presidential election apart from President Muhammadu Buhari.

    He said although ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar can contest if he so wishes, the state has only Buhari in mind.

    He asked Atiku to allow Buhari to complete his tenure instead of distracting him with 2019 project.

    He also said the party has fully accepted a former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, back to APC.

    Naira, who made the clarifications in a chat with our correspondents in Abuja, said the people of Adamawa cannot abandon Buhari for any other candidate in 2019.

    He said the people of Adamawa State remain grateful to the President for restoring peace to the state which was ravaged by the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents.

    He said: “2019 is very interesting to our state because we have only one President in this country and that is President Buhari and no other person will have our vote in 2019 apart from Buhari.

    “Even if he says he will not contest, we will make him to contest because we cannot forget easily what he did for us regarding the insecurity that ravaged our area.

    “During the last dispensation, we had the Chief of Defence Staff, the Principal Private Secretary to the President and many others, but they didn’t care. If you had visited Mubi during the period of insecurity, you will cry. The insurgents were coming and going from Mubi like their home, do whatever they like without being challenged.

    “Our people had to run away, leaving everything behind. But now, Mubi is back to life. So, we cannot leave Buhari now and face another person. The leadership of the party under Ibrahim Bilal is behind President Buhari completely and we don’t have other person in mind.”

    He, however, said the former Vice President Atiku can contest the election if he so wishes.

    Naira added: “He should stand aside and wait for this man to finish his term for every Nigerian to see. This government is not even up to two years yet and so, we should not start talking about who should be the next President. We should pray for them to finish these four years first. But in our mind, we have only Buhari.

    “He was Vice President and what did he do? He should have done much for his people when he was Vice President. It is another person’s time. We are not saying he cannot contest, but we are not voting anybody apart from Buhari because we know what we saw.

    “When Boko Haram came, it is Aliko Dangote who used to bring rice and share among the people and yet we have all the big people who did not bother to support the people. Instead of wasting time, he should take that money and rebuild houses for people. Let us forget about personal interest because if God says you will be, you will definitely be.

    “At this moment, we believe that the Presidency is in Adamawa because the First Lady is from Adamawa, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation is also from Adamawa, we also have the FCT Minister and many other appointees of government. At least, in whatever we are doing, the people of Adamawa have cause to thank God for what He has done for us.”

    Naira expressed confidence that the state governor, Umar Jibrilla Bindow is with President Buhari.

    On the return of Ribadu to the party, he said:”Ribadu is one of the pillars of APC in Nigeria. I was the person that begged him to come back to the party because he was one of the founders of the party in the state from the ACN days.

    “Nobody in the state has said that Ribadu cannot come back because the party does not belong to anybody. Whoever wants to come to the party is free to come.”

    He said Ribadu has been fully integrated into the party in the state.