The exposure of some All Progressives Congress (APC) members who doctored Ward and Local Government Congress lists is brewing tension in the party in Mubi North and Mubi South LGAs in Adamawa.
Stakeholders in the party who raised alarm over the development pointed out that if nothing is done by the party to address the sad development, what happened to APC in Zamfara and Rivers State will happen to APC victories in Adamawa State.
“There is a simmering crisis within the APC in Mubi North and Mubi South. Although the purveyors of the crisis have resorted to hiring some mercenary journalists to malign some individuals as a means of masking their illegalities, the respected National Chairman of the Party has seen through the smokescreen and has set up a committee to wade into the matter,” an APC member in Mubi who simply identified himself as Baba said.
Baba explained that the crisis was triggered by the attempts to control the ward and Local Government congresses by some elements within the hierarchy of the party through very dubious and unwholesome means.
“Some of them went about it by dropping the names of highly placed persons in Abuja as being the masterminds of the project. The executors of the unholy agenda claimed that they are on a mission to control the party structure with a view to giving one of the Gubernatorial Aspirants seeking to fly the flag of the party an advantage.
“Recently they have embarked on a concerted media propaganda distorting the facts of the matter and claiming that a particular member of the National Assembly is responsible for the crisis and that a former National officer of the party who holds no office at present has declared that the said national assembly member will be expelled from the party.
“The mercenary journalists hired have been drumming this false narrative continuously as if that will mask the facts of the illegalities committed by the purveyors of the crisis,” Baba said.
Investigation by our correspondent in Mubi revealed that on the 31st of August 2021, successful ward congresses were conducted in Mubi North and Mubi South.
The process which spilled over to the 1st of September in Mubi South had INEC and Security Agencies as observers as required by the Electoral Act. All went well and the resultant results were copied the electoral body.
The National secretariat of APC also sent an Appeal Committee to dispense with appeals arising from disputes within the contest but no disputes was reported as everything went well.
INEC report showing that there was no Congress in Mubi North
Our Correspondent also gathered that few days after the successful exercise, a group of persons acting purportedly on orders from above and working with another member of the National Assembly sat somewhere and doctored the list.
The outcome was changed with many elected persons removed including some ward chairmen in both Mubi North and South.
According to a key stakeholder who spoke under anonymity, the dubious process was done so unintelligently that “men” were used to replace women as Woman Leader and over 60s were made Youth leaders.
“Most major stakeholders protested these dubious omissions and insertions of unelected persons in the list. All appeals and entreaties to revert to the status quo was rebuffed by the perpetrators of the act.
“One of them even bragged that to reverse the changes they made to the list is the same as raising the dead back to life.
“In Mubi South in particular, this dubious and distorted list was used to swear in unelected persons into office to the exclusion of duly elected persons!
“This was the scenario leading to the Local Government Congress of 4th October 2021,” he said
He also pointed out that in the case of the Local Government Congresses, some strange things also happened.
“The officials of the state chapter of the party began to manipulate the process from inception by hoarding the forms, selecting people they want to anoint and insisting that they are the only ones that can determine outcomes.
“In Mubi North, they held a stakeholder meeting to try and address these issues but the errand boys of the purveyors of illegality refused to concede that the process be subjected to democratic norms.
“In Mubi South an aggrieved Chairmanship Aspirant felt so frustrated by the process that he went to court and obtained an injunction to stop the process,” he noted.
Police report confirming there was no congress in Mubi North
He pointed out that on the 4th of August 2021 while the Mubi North delegates were assembled at the designated venue of the Congress waiting for the electoral officials to come, they were told that some powers residing in Yola had conducted the congress on their behalf and that a circus show was held somewhere to entertain some patrons.
“While in Mubi South, because of the Court Injunction no one expected a congress to be held. However, the powers that be felt that they were above the laws of the land, they asked their cohorts to hold a circus show in one school in Mubi South while they conducted their congress in Yola.
“What they didn’t count on in all of this is that the roles of INEC and Security Agencies in the process goes beyond ceremonial attendance, for INEC its statutory. And both Agencies wrote that no such congress took place in the two Local Governments.
“Now with this scenario and the documents from the police and INEC any further process undertaken by these fake officials and delegates including nomination of candidates for elections can be nullified by any competent Court of Law and no amount of blackmail by mercenary journalists can change that.
The APC in Adamawa State has no option than to redress this brigandage or the Zamfara and Rivers treatment awaits the Party in 2023,” the stakeholder stressed.
Many party members who spoke on the development based on relevant documents available cautioned the party on the dangerous trend which they said would not augur well for the party if allowed to stand.
