Crack in APC as Bafarawa, Marwa, Shekarau set to Form New APC

A faction of the APC, to be known as
New APC (nAPC), will soon be launched
across the country, the Kwara State
chapter of the party has said.
The party, in a statement on Tuesday,
declared that like minds in APC in
different states of the federation had
concluded plan to launch the New APC,
to safeguard the ship of the party from
sinking.
A statement by the interim state
chairman of the party in Kwara State,
Reverend Bunmi Olusona, indicated
that leaders of the party, including
General
Mohammed Buba Marwa, Attahiru
Bafarawa, Ibrahim Shekarau and
Mohammed Dele Belgore, were working
to prevent imminent implosion in the
party.
Proponents of the faction, however,
pleaded with their members in Kwara
not to be in a hurry to leave the party. It
stated its plan to launch the New APC
would surely bring succour to the
members.
“We also warn our members not to
participate in any membership
registration exercise organised and
supervised by Governor Abdulfatah
Ahmed-led government or agent like
Alhaji Lai Mohammed,” the statement
read.
It rejected plans by party leaders to
cede structures of the party in the
states to
new entrants, adding that a number of
party members were asking the
question
about the bastardisation of the
progressive ideology of the party.
Meanwhile, as the interim National
Executive Committee (NEC) of APC
meets in Abuja tomorrow over the crisis
rocking the party, ranking members
contesting party structures in their
respective states with sitting governors
that defected from PDP may be
considered for outright
expulsion.
Shekarau, Bafarawa, Marwa and Belgore
were the likely heavyweight casualties.
The national leadership of APC said it
recognised the defected governors as
leaders of the party in their states, a
development that the old members of
the party had been contesting.
Several peace and reconciliation
meetings called by the party
leaderships
at different levels had failed to resolve
the crisis-of confidence.
It was learnt that the move by the
aggrieved leaders to polarise the party
by
launching a faction to be known as New
APC had prompted the national leaders
to tackle the growing dissent once and
for all, by expelling the disgruntled
leaders at
its NEC meeting tomorrow.
A senior member of the party told the
Nigerian Tribune that the national
leadership of the party had hints of the
planned polarisation of the party by the
disgruntled leaders, long before the
plan came into public knowledge and
had been preparing for the day they
would come into the open with their
plan.
Accusing those behind the nAPC as
being driven by inordinate ambition,
the source
disclosed that their plan was to
balkanise the party before moving out
with their supporters to PDP.
Shekarau, however, said the G5
governors that defected from PDP to
APC could not be automatic leaders of
the
party in their respective states.
This was as he challenged anyone to
come forward with any written
agreement
that conferred leadership on the
governors.
On a Federal Radio Corporation of
Nigeria (FRCN) Kaduna Hausa
programme, Hanu
da yawa, monitored on Tuesday, he
insisted that there was nothing like
“agreement” with the governors to
make
them chairmen/leaders of the party in
their states.
According to him, there was no meeting
where such discussion was reached,
while he challenged Honourable Bello
Masari to tell the time, date and at what
meeting the agreement was reached.