The leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committee (NWC) is enmeshed in a crisis over twin issues of control of agents’ data portal for general election and the mode of primaries to adopt for the governorship elections in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa states.
The Daily Sun reports that a source revealed to the newspaper that the crisis started when the party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, and National Secretary, Iyiola Omisore, secretly wrote to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the two issues without the knowledge or approval of the NWC.
The source explained that the first letter jointly signed by the duo to INEC requested a change of the Access Code given to the organising department of the party to access the agents’ portal without the knowledge of the department.
The second leg of the crisis was the National Chairman writing INEC on the mode of primaries for the states without any input from governors and major stakeholders.
The crisis, according to our source, had degenerated into fisticuffs during this week’s NWC meeting because of a 17-page counter letter written by the National Vice Chairman, North West, Salihu Lukman, to the commission to escalate the issue.
“There was an App the organising department developed in-house, they did everything as directed by INEC but a trust issue cropped up because the National Organising Secretary, Argungun, has been down with ill health.
“They accused the Deputy National Organising Secretary, Chidi Duru, of a plan to sell the content to Peter Obi, the Presidential Candidate of Labour Party. They also claimed that he has not been going to campaign with their presidential candidate because of his plans.
“The gang up started when one NWC member entered the uploading centre and started accusing certain persons handling the project of being Obidient (supporters of Peter obi). When they continued acting funny, the uploading was not only suspended but dismantled.
“When the boys developed the App and equally collated the primary data, the organising department held in-house training for about 36 party faithful, sent them to states to train the trainers in the states that in turn collated the data from the state, and automated the data collated with the App.
“But everything crumbled when the National Secretary and the National Chairman wrote to INEC, requesting for change of the access code given to the Organising Department during the training organised by the Commission on how to upload the agents’ data to its portal.
“The most painful aspect of the letter was that they told INEC that they don’t trust the group of people sent to the training and that they were working against the party’s interest.
“It was such a damaging letter that INEC had to change the Access Code unknown to the Organising Department. They did not stop there, they by-passed the Organising Department and sent the access code to the state Chairmen, informing them that the code is confidential and on no account should they give it to anybody.
“The instruction was contained in a letter signed by one of them. They threatened the Software Programmers that developed the App should they refuse to release the collated data.
“The painful aspect is that the PCC had already keyed in into the concept and the Organising Department was ready to move to the next stage of the Situation Room where they will use the agent data to monitor the election.
“The National Secretary and Chairman equally redeployed all the reliable hands in the Organising Department in December last year. They just dismantled the department by redeploying the key persons there, about 16 staff out of 23,” the source lamented.
Expressing disappointment further, the source hinged their decision on the shoddy deals they perpetrated during the primaries across the country.
“There were some dirty deals some of the members of the national leadership did and to cover it, a former National Vice Chairman was posted as Director of the department. On arrival, he started tracing some documents, especially in Niger, Benue, Taraba, and Nasarawa states. It was when they could not lay hands on those documents that they redeployed the staff in the department. But the National Organising Secretary had directed from his sickbed that certain sensitive materials should be removed from his private office.
“The situation degenerated to almost a fisticuff during the last NWC meeting. It was bad that the National Vice Chairman, North West, wrote a stinker to the National Chairman, warning him of the implication of his actions concerning the matter and one other serious issue that would soon disorganise the party.
“The other source of crisis is the letter the party chairman wrote to INEC to inform the commission that the national leadership has resolved to adopt indirect primaries for the forthcoming Imo, Bayelsa, and Kogi governorship elections. He wrote the letter even when the NWC were yet to deliberate on the issue.
“But when the national leadership got wind of his letter to INEC, even against the desire of the governors and stakeholders of the state, they were livid with anger. They wrote a counter letter to the commission of about 17 pages, informing it that the decision was not deliberated at the NWC.
“And during the NWC meeting on Tuesday this week, they insisted that they won’t deliberate on it until the letter the Chairman wrote to INEC is withdrawn and a new letter written on the decision,” he explained.
