• Set to challenge Nyako's impeachment
By Onyebuchi Ezigbo
Following the onslaught of impeachment against All
Progressives Party governors, the party's national leadership
has asked its governors to keep a tight grip on their
respective Houses of Assembly, THISDAY has gathered. This
is as the APC leaders are charting fresh strategies to retain
their strongholds and try to gain strength in states controlled
by Peoples Democratic Party.
APC also disclosed at the weekend that it was prepared to
challenge the July 15 impeachment of former Adamawa
State Governor Murtala Nyako in court.
APC leaders were busy over the weekend discussing
measures to avert the ongoing impeachment exercise against
Governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nassarawa State to try to
save him from going the way of Nyako.
THISDAY gathered that APC had asked its governors,
especially in states where the Assemblies are in turmoil, to
be vigilant and try to be on top of happenings in the
legislature to prevent PDP from exploiting the situations. It
was learnt that the party took particular notice of
developments in Rivers and Edo states, where pro-PDP and
APC legislators have engaged each other in a supremacy
tussle widely believed to be instigated by external forces on
purpose to remove the APC governors from office.
In the case of the latest impeachment gale threatening to
blow down Al-Makura, THISDAY gathered that the party was
reaching out to important stakeholders in the state, including
traditional rulers, in a bid to stop his removal. As a follow-up
to earlier efforts to woo some moderate elements within the
state PDP, the governor's men were said to have resorted to
appealing to his kinsmen for solidarity.
There were signs of major realignments among politicians in
the state last week, with some of them already viewing the
conflict from tribal perspective.
A source said the recent protests against the impeachment of
the Nasarawa State governor had started generating
sentiments from among interest groups in the state,
especially the Gwandara tribal area, where the governor
comes from.
"The sentiments are growing over the matter and some
people are calling for the recall of recalcitrant lawmakers
who are bent on pushing for the impeachment. Some of
legislators are also considering yielding to pressures from
their people to back out of the impeachment drive," source
said.
Meanwhile, APC is making serious effort to reverse the
advantage gained by PDP following Nyako's impeachment
on July 15.
The party's national vice chairman for North-east, Babachir
David Lawal, who revealed this, said APC had assembled a
legal team and readied necessary evidence to commence the
legal process.
According to Lawal, the party is adopting a two-pronged
approach towards wresting power back from PDP. He said
yesterday that APC had put together necessary
documentation and assembled a legal team to challenge the
impeachment of Nyako in court.
Lawal said the party had commenced the search for a strong
and credible candidate ahead of the governorship bye-
election in Adamawa State, which is expected to take place
within 90 days of the governor's impeachment in line with
the constitution.
The zonal vice chairman said, "The people of Adamawa are
agitated and not happy with the turn of things, as the PDP
has tried to force out the governor through the impeachment.
Our party is aware of the enormous support and goodwill it
enjoys among the people of Adamawa State and does not
want to take chances over the issue. We are, therefore,
ready to go to court and also will take part in any bye-
election to make sure that we do not allow the PDP to snatch
away the people's mandate through the back-door."
On insinuations that APC may have bungled on its initial
goodwill in Adamawa State by failing to properly manage
the squabbles over control of party structures in the state,
resulting in the defection of some stalwarts to PDP, Lawal
said none of the defectors could whittle down APC's influence
in the state. He said before the exit of the former members,
APC had become so deep-rooted in Adamawa that no single
individual could alter the party's popularity among the
people.
He said before the defection of Nyako to APC, the party was
already the dominant party in Adamawa State, stressing
that during the 2011 general election PDP only narrowly
defeated the Action Congress of Nigeria while Congress for
Progressive Change came third. ACN and CPC, which are
now defunct, were among the major parties that formed the
APC merger.
Lawal said, "The defections of Gundiri and Marwa, the 2011
governorship candidates of ACN and CPC, respectively, to
PDP has little or no effect on the fortunes of APC. This is
because no notable member of the party followed them to
PDP. On the contrary, the few rank and file members that
followed them are trickling back."
He maintained that majority of people in Adamawa State
were angry with the way Nyako was removed from office by
"people they know to possess no morality, who were driven
purely by selfish motives and were also sponsored by selfish
interests from outside the state."
He alleged that the impeachment involved serial breaches of
the constitution, saying PDP will suffer the backlash during
the by-election.
The APC chieftain said the people of Adamawa State were
fully aware that Nyako was ousted because of his stance on
the failure of President Goodluck Jonathan to secure the
people of the North-east against the rampaging Boko Haram
insurgency.
"The trigger for this was the letter he wrote to the northern
governors and the paper he presented in the USA on the
security challenges facing the country. Admiral Nyako said
things which every northerner had wanted to say but which
no one had the courage to say. But being a general, he took
the bull by horns and said it, damning all consequences. The
impeachment was the price he had to pay.
"Today, Admiral Nyako is a hero to all northerners and, in
particular, the people of Adamawa State. This by-election
will be payback time for President Goodluck Jonathan and
his minions in the PDP," Lawal said.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
0 comments:
Post a Comment