APC searches for peace as crisis persists in seven states

The national leadership of the All Progressives Congress has vowed to resolve various crisis rocking some of its state chapters.

Despite the internal wrangling in the party in Benue, Adamawa, Delta, Osun, Rivers, Zamfara, and Bayelsa states, the leaders said there was no cause for alarm.

However, there are indications that the trouble in the aforementioned states may persist till the 2027 elections if no concrete measure is taken to resolve them.

While party leaders have attempted to broker peace among warring members in their various states, the aggrieved members have maintained a strong stance, making resolution difficult.
The Delta crisis began in 2015, while Adamawa’s trouble has remained unresolved since March 2023.

Speaking to Sunday PUNCH, the APC Deputy National Organising Secretary, Nze Duru, disclosed that there was an ongoing effort to resolve the crisis to ensure the party achieved a united front.

He said, “The interesting thing about politics is that just as every other affair of human beings, it is something that we do not micromanage, and people are allowed to meet and take their positions at any given point in time.
“The ruling party is not in any position to enforce its decisions on state party. But I can assure you that very soon, most of the issues we’ve spoken about will reach a point of resolution.

“Unlike other parties that do not have answers on how to resolve their contending issues, the APC has those mechanisms on how to resolve conflicts.”

Crises’ll be resolved soon

Meanwhile, the APC National Publicity Director, Bala Ibrahim, also shared Duru’s sentiment over the ongoing efforts to resolve the crisis in the affected states.

Ibrahim maintained that there were reconciliatory moves by the Abdullahi Ganduje-led leadership, to resolve the issues before 2025, adding that nobody was losing sleep on the matters.

“The APC under the leadership of Dr Abdullahi Ganduje is a party that does not shy away from responsibilities. It’s a party that confronts problems head-on and looks for lasting solutions to those problems.

“These are problems that are being created and overblown by the opposition, thinking that they will succeed in derailing the mission and ambition of the party,” Ibrahim said.
Bayelsa crisis unresolved

In Bayelsa State, the current crisis may linger for a long time as no genuine effort is being made to resolve it.

The crisis started following the last ward and state congresses which were challenged by a member, Alex Blankson, who got judgment nullifying the congresses.

Following the court judgment, the state delegates to the last national convention were not allowed to participate.

It did not stop the party from participating in the last state governorship election with former minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, bearing the party’s flag.

The state was not fully united behind him because of the lingering issues with the Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri and Chief David Lyon who was denied the governorship position by the Supreme Court in 2020.

While still haunted by the ghost from the past, four local government party leaderships announced a flurry of suspensions for some of the party bigwigs, including Lokpobiri, and Lyon.
Sensing a bigger trouble ahead, the state leadership resolved to embark on consultations before ratifying the suspensions and called a halt to further suspensions in order to unite the party.

But Blankson, who denounced the suspensions, insisting the executive members of the party who issued the disciplinary actions were illegal, went to court to institute contempt proceedings against the party.

Incensed that the state leadership did not allow their actions to follow through, the local government chapters also sued the state leadership.

Details of the judicial actions by the local chapters have yet to fully emerge and party stalwarts have continued to maintain silence over the development.

An APC source said, “The issue at the centre of all these problems is control of the party structure for 2027. Some people want to edge out others to score cheap political gain.

In the end, it is the party that suffers. That is why it is difficult for us to mount a strong challenge against the PDP in the state.”
Aregbesola, Oyetola differ
In Osun, the state leadership of the party is under the firm control of the ex-governor Adegboyega Oyetola, while the group loyal to his predecessor, Rauf Aregbesola, has been operating with the name Omoluabi Progressives under separate leadership, as the crisis became obvious from 2019 to 2020.

Aregbesola and many members of the Omoluabi Progressives were suspended by the APC leadership in the state.

Also, the state leadership of the party, led by Tajudeen Lawal, has been conducting its affairs without reference to the Aregbesola group.

Meanwhile, Aregbesola’s group, led by ex-state deputy chairman, Azeez Adesiji, has been having its monthly meetings in the Ilesa home of the ex-governor.

Speaking on the current Osun State APC crisis, the party’s spokesperson, Kola Olabisi, said, “All is well in the fold of Osun APC. There is nothing unusual in what is happening within our fold and I can tell you the party is not in any crisis.”

But when speaking on the same issue, the spokesperson for the Omoluabi Progressives, Oluwaseun Abosede, simply said, “The mother party knows there’s the mother of all crises in Osun APC.”

Benue’s problems
In Benue State, the burial of the Second Republic minister, Paul Unongo, has opened Pandora’s box of a new crisis within the ranks and files of the ruling APC in the state.

It was the day both political godfather and son for the first time in a while came out in public to speak on the internal crisis rocking the party.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, and his political son, Governor Hyacinth Alia, on Saturday, used Unongo’s burial to open up the can of worms in the party.

Governor Alia had during his speech accused APC stakeholders as ‘cheerleaders’, fanning embers of disunity at the state level to create a crisis that they could feast on, stating that there was no conflict between him and Akume.

Meanwhile, the SGF, who represented President Bola Tinubu at the event advised his political son to be wary of his newfound political associates, the likes of one-time national chairman of the PDP, Senator Barnabas Gemade, and former governor of the state, Gabriel Suswam, who he said were not there when the party toiled day and night to ensure his victory at the polls.

Delta’s parallel chairmen

In Delta State, the APC is currently enmeshed in another round of internal crisis following the emergence of two parallel chairmen.
The development rubbished a recent attempt to reconcile feuding members in different factions.

Two persons; Paulinus Akpeki from Delta Central and Francis Obigbor from Delta North, were laying claim to the state chairmanship position of the party.

Trouble started when the State Working Committee announced Akpeki as the acting state chairman of the party, citing the medical vacation of the substantive chairman, Mr Omeni Sobotie, as an excuse.

But in a swift reaction, the state Deputy Chairman of the Party, Obigbor declared himself as the authentic acting chairman in the absence of Sobotie who was said to have been on medical vacation.

Rivers lingering crisis

In the South-South state, the party is still sharply divided between the Rotimi Amaechi faction, with Emeka Beke as the reinstated chairman of the APC, and the Tony Okocha faction.

Okocha, who was the chairman of the APC Caretaker Committee, recently emerged as the substantive chairman following a congress conducted despite a court order for it not to be held.
Recall that a reconciliation committee headed by Senator Muhammed Mana, had been set up to resolve the internal wrangling among members, chieftains and political bigwigs of the Adamawa State chapter of the party.

This was revealed when the newly constituted committee paid a courtesy visit to the National Chairman of the APC, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje in Abuja on Thursday night.

The eight-member reconciliation team includes prominent politicians such as Senators Bello Tukur, Abubakar Girei, Binta Masi, Yusuf Yakubu, Dr Bridget Zidon and Isa Baba, who serves as Secretary.

The Adamawa APC has been plagued by crisis with several loyalists pitching tents with different factions.

Mana said the team had been constituted and saddled with the task of resolving internal disputes and unifying members.