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Tag: APC faction

  • 2019: APC faction, Oyinlola, Mimiko meet Ladoja for merger talk – News

  • 2019: APC faction, Oyinlola, Mimiko meet Ladoja for merger talks

    A faction of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, a former governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola and former Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko yesterday met with former Oyo State Governor Rashidi Ladoja in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

    They met in separate meetings with Ladoja at his Bodija, Ibadan home amidst a crowd of supporters.

    The meetings, it was learnt, were reportedly called to enable the top politicians plan ahead of next year’s general elections and discuss strategies for the merger of opposition parties in the Southwest.

    In Ladoja’s team were former Secretary to the Oyo State Government (SSG), Sharafadeen Alli, Senator Femi Lanleyin, Peoples democratic Party (PDP) leaders in Oyo State, including Otunba Yemi Aderibigbe, Bayo Lawal, Dr. Nureni Adeniran, Nureni Adisa, Bashiru Lawal and Bimbo Adepeju.

    Oyinlola, who arrived Ladoja’s house around 9 a.m yesterday, said his meeting with Ladoja was not political.

    “I am here to visit my brother,” he said.

    Also, Mimiko, who recently defected to the Labour Party (LP), declined comments but later said: “This is a private visit, please.”

    A source close to Ladoja confirmed that members of the Unity Forum, led by Senator Monsuratu Sumonu, were on their way to meet the former governor to prepare the ground for them to work together.

    “Unity Forum members were talking to our leader before now and they are on their way to Ladoja’s house,” one of Ladoja’s loyalists said.

    A member of the former Oyo State governor’s team, who spoke in confidence, said Mimiko and Oyinlola wooed him into their parties following the seven-day ultimatum given to the National Working Committee (NWC) of PDP by Ladoja’s group over the crisis in the state chapter of the party.

    “We have not decided now. We are going to meet with our leader, Ladoja, to decide our next move. But we may have a merger at the end of the day,” the source said.

    It was further learnt that after the meetings, Ladoja and his team would need to review the visits before announcing their next move.

    Ladoja recently issued a seven-day ultimatum to the NWC of the PDP over some unsettled crisis rocking the state chapter of the party.

    The APC faction, also called the Unity Forum, following a face-off with Governor Abiola Ajimobi, had threatened to quit the party, if the NWC refused to address the crisis.

  • Our case against Oyegun, by Abia APC faction

    A faction of the Abia State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has threatened to serve the out going national chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun court contempt papers if he fails to recognise the Dr Emmanuel Ndukwe led executive council in the state.

    The faction’s publicity secretary, Mike Ozoemena, told reporters  in Umuahia that the out going national chairman was trying to bring the party to disrepute before leaving office this month.

    Ozoemena said the country was not a banana republic where anything goes.

    He said: We the Exco and the entire membership of Abia APC wants to use this medium to salute the courage and determination of President Buhari in recognising Chief M.K.O. Abiola’s election which was regarded as a free, fair and peaceful election in the history of our country.

    “We commend President Buhari’s bold move aimed at healing the wounds of injustice that the annulment of the June 12 election inflicted in the minds of the Chief M.K.O Abiola’s family and Nigerians in general.

    “The declaration of June 12 as a public holiday by Mr. President is not only a sign that he is a true democrat but that our Party the APC stands for justice and peace while deepening the tenets of democracy and rule of law in our society.

    “The journey of our labour for true democracy cannot be complete without the recognition of the key players in the struggle and President Buhari by this declaration has officially completed that democratic journey started since 1993.”

    He said President Buhari had by this singular virtue deepened the roots of democracy and rule of law.

    He said: “And we hereby call on the convention committee of the APC to follow the footsteps of Mr. President by not recognising the Donatus Nwankpa led illegal Exco during the forth coming APC national convention due to be held on the 23rd of June 2018.

    “We should rather in the interest of peace and fairness deal with the legally recognised Abia Exco that was put in place through a well-organised, recognised and supervised convention that produced Dr. Emmanuel Ndukwe as the Chairman of Abia APC.”

    But, Donatus Nwankpa, who was swore in as the party’s chairman by Oyegun,  said his executives are authentic.

    Nwankpa said  there was no faction in the party in Abia State, saying there was only a family problem which would be resolved.

    He said he had set up a reconciliatory committee that would bring peace to the party. The committee is led by Godfrey Onyemaobi and would be helped by a former chief judge of the state, Justice Sunday Imo and Senator Chris Adighije.

    On the allegation of being pocketed or sponsored by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, Nwankpa described it as totally false.

    He wondered how people should expect him to be an enemy of the governor or any of his aides simply because they belong to different political parties.

  • Enugu: APC faction breaks into party secretariat to hold meeting

    The tension generated by the just concluded congresses of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu State heightened at the weekend with the factional chairman, Okey Ogbodo, forcefully breaking into the party’s secretariat.

    As at the time of filing this report, Ogbodo, who leads the faction loyal to Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geofrey Onyeama, was holding a meeting of his faction at the secretariat in Park Avenue, GRA Enugu.

    Ogbodo was said to have acted under the cover of suspected thugs and heavily armed operatives of Department of State Security (DSS), Enugu State Command, who were sighted by our correspondent at the secretariat while the faction was meeting.

    Although the re-elected Enugu State APC Chairman, Dr. Ben Nwoye, had earlier scheduled a meeting of his executive at the party secretariat, he was advised to shelve the meeting to avert a total breakdown of law and order in the secretariat.

    Ogbodo had petitioned against the re-election of Nwoye in the last state congress, demanding that he (Ogbodo) should be issued with certificate of return as the chairman of the party.

    However, the three-man appeal panel from the APC national secretariat dismissed his petition for lacking in substance.

    An insider source alleged that breaking into the party secretariat was a covert plot by the minister’s faction to provoke a clash with the party leadership and create an atmosphere of crises in Enugu State, ahead of the national convention, slated for June 23.

    According to our source, the faction was irked that none of its members, including the minister, was named in the list of Enugu State delegates to the national convention released by the national secretariat.

    Before claiming to be a contender for APC chairmanship early this year, Ogbodo contested for the state chairmanship of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and was defeated by the incumbent chairman, Augustine Nnamani.

    Ogbodo’s foray into the state chairmanship of APC was viewed as an attempt by the ruling PDP in the state to destabilise APC, its main challenger in 2019.

    Notable APC bigwigs in Enugu State narrowly escaped death during the state congress when Ogbodo’s faction stormed the venue of the party’s state congress in Enugu State with suspected political thugs.

    Those who escaped by whiskers include former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, immediate past governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Chime, the Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, and the National Vice Chairman of APC, Southeast, Emma Eneukwu.

    Others were former commissioner in Enugu State, Hon. Joe Mammel, and the state chairman of the party, Nwoye.

    All the dignitaries were already seated at the Indoor Sports Hall of Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium Enugu, venue of the congress, while the delegates were being called in when the minister and members of his faction stormed the venue at about 2.pm.

    The suspected thugs, who chanted praises for the minister, chased away the delegates to APC Enugu State Congress.

  • Kwara: APC faction rejects congress committee

    A faction of the All Progressives Con-gress (APC), in Kwara State has kicked against the choice of Senator Mohammed Ohiare as the chairman of the party’s state congress committee over allegations of bias.  In a statement issued after an ordinary meeting of the stakeholders of the party at the weekend by the factional chairman,  Olayemi Olabanji in Ilorin, the faction said the state congress committee as currently constituted cannot conduct a free and fair congress in the state.

    “We were able to pull together former national assembly members, former state executive cabinet members, gubernatorial aspirants and relevant stakeholders of the party to a meeting, where we discussed issues that can return the party to the path of honour and sustain its acceptability by all and sundry in Kwara State. We discussed the appointment of Senator Ohiare as the Chairman of the Congress Committee in Kwara State.

    “Senator Ohiare is a known political ally of Senator Bukola Saraki. We can conveniently say that Senator Saraki whose ally will supervise the congresses in Kwara State is the leader of a faction of the party. Note also that we had earlier rejected the inclusion of Mr. Kawu Baraje on the convention committee because he belongs to a faction of the party here in Kwara State. We therefore reject Senator Ohiare and other members of his committee and we request for immediate replacement,” the release read.

    The faction further decried the decision of the national leadership of the party to hand nomination forms to a faction of the party. “We are deeply touched by the display of lack of  respect for democratic tenets by the Balogun Fulani led state executive that prevented majority of party members from obtaining nomination forms to participate in the ward congress. Majority of party members willing to contest for one office or the other were turned back at the secretariat by Chief Bode Adekanye and Mr. Tunji Buhari.

    “You can’t build something on nothing; this congress can’t stand and we call for its total cancellation in Kwara State. It is only in Kwara that the state executive issued a statement stopping sales of nomination forms by 12.30pm while hundreds of people were still willing to buy. The congresses in Kwara is already enmeshed in fraud and we fear that a procured congress committee is in place under the chairmanship of Senator Ohiare,” he said.