A group within the All Progressives Congress (APC), “the APC National Stakeholders” on Tuesday, kicked against the purported endorsement of Senator representing Nasarawa West, as the consensus candidate for the party’s chairmanship positions
Addressing a press conference in Abuja, the stakeholders led by Audu Aliyu said they would resist any form of imposition.
He said, “We have always been against imposition in whatever guise, considering our belief that whenever a consensus option is adopted, as long as it is not predated by wide consultation, it would no doubt violate every known democratic ethos and principle.
“The lingering and now widespread speculation as to the plan to bring a former member of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP in the person of Senator Abdullahi Adamu as the APC National Chairman in the forthcoming Convention, where loyal, qualified and competent foundation members of the APC are also in the race is not only an aberration but a violation of the established principle of APC which respects long-term fidelity and frowns at injustice.
“While it is within his constitutional rights to vie for any position within the APC or even the country as a whole, we believe that the individuals who are purportedly behind the plot to make Abdullahi Adamu the next APC National Chairman cannot sit down alone in their zones and decide who gets what.”
However, Ambassador Samuel Jimba, Special Adviser to Senator Abdullahi Adamu when contacted said, “we don’t respond to faceless groups that cannot name their paymasters.”
He said, “I do not know if they are hirelings. But, if you look at their press conference they said they want somebody who has youth inclusiveness and all the rest. But they did not tell us who they are fronting for. Apparently they are fronting for somebody, but they do not have sufficient confidence in the person they are fronting for to even bring out his name to the public space.
“If you say you don’t want somebody, then give us the alternative. They have not provided any alternative, they have not named anybody, they themselves didn’t put their names in the paper I saw; how do you now expect us to take them serious.
” If they are playing the tune of their paymaster, they should name him and let the paymaster come and compete with those they are accusing. That is, if they have the pedigree, the experience, the quality of leadership that these people they are accusing have, then we place them on the table and let’s see how they meet with each other shoulder to shoulder if they can.
“But, when you come and say you don’t want somebody and then you don’t provide an alternative, I think you do not deserve to get any attention at all and so as far as I am concerned they should be ignored.
“They do not have any sufficient weight to be able to talk nationally on issues of the APC and the national convention and the national chairman.
“As far as we are concerned Sen. Abdullahi Adamu is an experienced politician, he had been an activist since his student days. He was part of those that formed the National Union of Nigerian Student, he was a foundation member of NUNS before it became National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).
“He later became the first national Vice President of NANS and from there became a leader in the NPN, where he was state secretary and state chairman and member of the National Executive Committee
“As you know, he was a two-time governor, a ranking Senator, three terms in the Senator. So, what experience do you need that this man does not have and then they begin to throw a lot of tissues and lies on the man’s character and assassination of his character, we will not answer them because they don’t deserve that attention.”
