Fresh tension has erupted within the Adamawa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) following allegations of attempts to impose a candidate for the Adamawa Central Senatorial District.
A pressure group within the party, known as Legacy APC, on Wednesday accused some party leaders of manipulating the primaries process in favour of a preferred aspirant.
Addressing journalists in Yola, spokesman of the group, Alhaji Kabiru Mohammed, criticised the suspension of the senatorial primaries in the central zone, describing the development as a setback capable of affecting President Bola Tinubu’s re-election efforts.
“You suspend the primaries and a governorship aspirant and serving senator in the central senatorial zone Iya Abbas, went and bought form after the sales of form was closed and screening was conducted,” he said.
Mohammed warned Governor Ahmadu Fintiri against what he described as attempts to force a candidate on party members.
“We the legacy APC want the governor to know that he was not created as governor, the people of Adamawa state made him to become what he is today, so the ears cannot be teller than the head,” he cautions.
According to him, the only aspirant widely accepted across the six local government areas in the senatorial district is Alhaji Aliyu Abbati, whom he said had already secured the backing of Legacy APC leaders in the zone.
This is the first time Yola-North will produce a senator. We have not seen even posters of other aspirants not to talk of going to the six local governments to solicit for our votes. They are waiting for those that give birth to Adamawa state to handpick them as candidate, it will scatter the party,” he said.
The group also called on President Bola Tinubu to closely monitor political developments in Adamawa, alleging that some APC stakeholders were secretly working in the interest of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
Mohammed further criticised the governor over repeated references to his infrastructural achievements.
“I want to remind the governor that governors started constructing roads, schools, hospitals, before he was born. The school he attended was built by a former governor, so he should stop telling people that he worked, because that was what he was vote to do,” he stated.
The group equally appealed to the National Security Adviser to set aside personal interests and support what it described as a transparent process that would allow the Legacy APC aspirant, Abbati, emerge as candidate.
“It was imposition that stop Ribadu in 2015, People’s Democratic Party PDP rejected him at the general elections. If Adamawa APC did not stop the governor from his plans to imposed Abbas on us in the central senatorial zone, the results will be a calamity from the president election to House of Assembly polls!” he said.
Responding to concerns over the suspension of the primaries, Adamawa APC spokesman, Victor Dogo, explained that the exercise was postponed because election materials arrived late.
When asked why materials meant for the central zone were allegedly separated from those of other senatorial districts in Abuja, Dogo said:
“That is beyond me, the committee can speak better on that issue.”
Meanwhile, Governor Fintiri, while speaking during a press conference at the Government House in Yola on Tuesday, reportedly dismissed those complaining about the conduct of the primaries as inexperienced politicians.
The crisis appears to be widening within the party, as over 78 aggrieved House of Representatives aspirants under a pressure forum also threatened to challenge the party leadership in the state.
Spokesman of the group, Vrati Nzonzo, said transparent and credible primaries remain the only pathway to victory for the APC in future elections.
Tension over the primaries had earlier sparked protests along the Numan-Yola-Gombe federal highway on Sunday, as youths, women and party supporters blocked the road over alleged imposition of House of Representatives candidates without proper primaries.
