The reconciliation committee set up to reconcile aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Nasarawa State, said it has received far reaching revelations and discussions and has made suggestions on how to move the party forward.
Chairman of the reconciliation committee, Hassan Liman (SAN), disclosed this when he led members of the committee to interact with Governor Abdullahi Sule, at the Government House, on Saturday.
Recall that Engineer Sule, constituted and inaugurated the committee following grievances arising from the outcome of the local government election, ward, local government and state congresses, as well as the party’s primary elections.
Briefing the Governor on the activities of the committee, Liman (SAN) said the committee has interacted with all critical stakeholders of the party including two former governors of the state namely Senator Abdullahi Adamu, National Chairman of the APC and Senator Umaru Tanko Al-makura, as well as all other aspirants of the party who appeared before the committee across the three senatorial districts of the state.
“We are happy to report to you that, we have received far reaching revelations and discussions and have made suggestions on how to move our party forward,” he stated.
Liman however noted that, the work of the committee will be incomplete if it did not interact with the Governor, who is not only the leader of the party in the state, but also the convener of the committee.
“But our work will not be completed because as the leader of the party in the state, our interest is to see that, we win the general election in all the various elections. And that is why the committee is here to interact with you. To hear from you, with a view to arriving at a far reaching resolution and conclusion,” the committee chairman said.
Liman (SAN), used the opportunity of the meeting to identify key findings of the committee, explaining why some members of the party decided to leave the APC.
He specifically identified disenchantment with the outcome of both the primary election leading to the local government election, ward, local government and state congresses, the recently concluded party primary election for the 2023 general election, as well as the contest for the position of the national chairman of the party as reasons for the crisis in the party in Nasarawa State.
While giving the governorship primary election which returned Engineer Sule as the flagbearer of the party a clean bill, the committee discovered that the exercise was marred by allegations of delegate list substitution across some local government areas in the state.
The committee revealed that while the dust raised in the process of picking candidates of the party for the local government election was yet to settle, the party adopted consensus to produce executives of the party at the ward, local government and state levels.
“As the dust was settling down, the issue of the national chairmanship came up. All the members that interacted with the committee agreed that, this to some extent, set the party apart as two former governors of the state vied for the position.
Liman (SAN) said, the emergence of Senator Adamu as the national chairman of the party paved the way for another bout of crisis within the APC.
Though the primary election that produced Engineer Sule was smooth, free and fair, the committee said it discovered that the case was not the same in some of the other legislative primary elections mostly because of the problem of which delegates list to be used for the other legislative primary elections.
“From the information we gathered, from members that appeared before this committee, there was said to be list number one and list number two.
“That when there was recommendation from the national body to change the five delegate lists to include two women, but that, when the final list came for the primary election, in some local government areas, there was total outright change of delegates. In some local governments, some wards were changed. That threw out party into great problem and crisis,” he stated.
He explained that aspirants like Hon. Ahmed Aliyu Wadada, GazaJonathan Gbwefi, Godiya Akwashiki and Sarki Dahiru, among others, left the party because the alleged delegate list substitution.
“In the cause of our interaction, one person that I so much believe he will follow us, and will be with us till death do us part, is Senator Danboyi. He appeared before us and reported to us that he has jumped ship. I recalled in 2018, he was the DG of our campaign. He took us through the rudiments of the campaign and by the grace of God, we won the election,” he stated.
Responding, Governor Abdullahi Sule, thanked the committee for its seriousness in carrying out its assignment.
“I have been following up on most of your meetings in the various reports on the social media. I read about your interactions with the who and who that you have seen. I want to sincerely commend you for the seriousness that you have taken the work of this committee. Let me thank you for the professionalism that you have given to the interactions,” Engineer Sule stated.
The Governor said though he still awaits the report of the committee which will be more authentic, he has kept abreast of their activities, especially from the individual reports of those who appeared before the committee.
“My essence of responding is to thank you for the time you have taken, you are all very busy in your areas of work, yet you have found time to travel to Abuja and spend a lot of time to meet with all our major stakeholders who live there. And you still had time to go all the three zones and then you were able to meet with all the other various stakeholders,” he added.
