Disquiet in Plateau APC as 18 Governorship Aspirants Threaten to Quit Party

There is palpable tension and disquiet in the Ruling Party, APC in Plateau State as 18 Aspirants are threatening to exit the party on account of what they termed “imposition of an Aspirant” by some bigwigs of the Party.

Their position was made known in a Press Text sign by Chief Amos Gizo and Dr. Danyaro Sarpiya, Chairman and Secretary of the forum respectively.

The text reads:

TEXT OF PRESS CONFERENCE OF 18 PLATEAU APC GOVERNORSHIP
ASPIRANTS BY CHIEF AMOS GIZO CHAIRMAN/CONVENER OF THE
FORUM. HELD ON MONDAY 9TH MAY 2022 AT KALWA HOUSE, JOS.

Gentlemen of the press.
It is my pleasure and a privilege to be amongst you this morning.

  • It has made it a necessity for us to address you this morning
    considering recent development in our great party the APC
    Plateau state chapter.
  • It is no longer news that the issue of the moment is the 2023
    general elections; most political parties are busy with primaries
    to produce party flag bearers to beat the INEC schedules.
  • Our party the APC is not left out of there process by preparing
    guidelines and schedule of primaries sales of forms for all
    elective positions are ongoing and is expected to close by
    Tuesday the 10th of May 2023.
  • As the processes are going on in the sate the executive
    Governor of Plateau State Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong and the
    state chairman Hon. Rufus Bature sermonad and enlarged
    stake holders meeting at the government house on Monday
    18th/4/2022 they admonished all aspirants to speak to
    themselves on possible withdrawals and a possibility of coming
    up with a consensus candidate.
  • This we started immediately after the parley but we as
    governorship aspirants were invited by the state chairman Hon.
    Rufus Bature at the state secretariat at kalwa on the 25/4/2022
    recterated the govern house position and asked us to try to
    help the party and ourselves by trying to agree and to come up
    with a consensus candidate or at least reduce the number of
    governorship aspirants at the end of the meeting the state
    chairman gave legitimacy to the Plateau governorship aspirants
    forum by appointing Chief Amos Gizo as the chairman convener
    of all the over 20 APC governorship aspirants.
  • As the ruling party in the state and at the center our desire is to
    produce credible, qualified and electable candidates who are
    loyal to the party leadership and a person without baggage as
    we want to return power beyond the 16 years of PDP.
  • We know what it is to be in government and to be outside
    government and we don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the
    previous leaders who could not install their successors by being
    selfish of imposing unpopular candidates.
  • The press conference is a collective agreements and position of
    about 18 governorship aspirants of APC Plateau state who have
    all indicated interests for the number one seat of the state.
  • The governor and the leadership of the party in the state all
    confirmed that all of us are most qualified that the least
    qualified of the APC aspirant is better than the most qualified
    of candidates of the other parties.
    We are all passionate about the Plateau state project, all interested
    in changing the narratives of a new secured, developed Plateau. All
    of us have met and spoken and have asked ourselves the question of
    how did we come to this decay? Where did we get it wrong?
    We all agreed that Plateau is not progressing as the indices of
    progress show that we are derailing from the prestigious 3rd position
    in the 60s, 70s and 80s amongst the states of the north to 12th, this
    means something is fundamentally wrong with successive
    administrations of the state that the political will to propel positive
    developments by our founding fathers these are what we have
    discussed and all willing to change.
    The APC governorship aspirants on the Plateau are seasoned experts
    in their fields ranging from academic professors, doctors,
    administrators, accountants, and financial experts, lawyers,
    surveyors etc. All willing to key into the new Plateau project.
    The aspirants in our meetings have resolved as follows.
    At our maiden meeting, the aspirants resolved as follows:
  1. There should be no impositions of any kind and consensus will
    be done by the aspirants themselves.
  2. We all agreed that any aspirant that becomes the consensus
    candidate will be supported by all.
  3. We all agreed that whoever emerges will have the blue print of
    other aspirants to be embedded into his manifestos and
    programs.
  4. We all agreed that delegates will emerge by either the
    consensus of the aspirants or election must take place at the
    various designated wards and local government.
  5. That no concurred list will be accepted.
  6. The party leadership should ensure strict compliance to the
    guidelines of the party for the conduct of the adhoc delegates
    and our position has been communicated to the party leadership by
    our chairman chief Amos Gizo and the secretary Dr Danyaro serpiya
    by our mandate.
    This press conference is to let you members of the fourth estate of
    the realm know and in turn let the world and particularly the
    leadership of our party at the natural level know our position and to
    proudly say that for the first time matured men aspiring for the same
    position and all put their personal ambitions and interest on time to
    chart a course for the collective interest of Plateau and have vowed
    that they will come up with a consensus governorship candidate for
    APC on the Plateau before the primaries.
    This press conference is necessitated by what looked like rumor but
    has been evident by the body language of the state governor Rt.
    Hon. Simon Bako Lalong with members of the first family (wife and
    brothers) his father in-law. Mr Cyril Tsenyil the Accountant general of
    the state, Mr Festus Fuanter the deputy national secretary of APC
    anchored by the member representating pankshin, kanke and kanam
    at the national assembly Rt. Hon. Yusuf Adamu Gagdi to subjugate
    the Collective will of the members of APC by imposing a candidate on
    members of the party in the person of Dr. Nentawe Yilwada Goshen
    which is unacceptable to all of us. We all believe this act of
    subverting democracy has the express approval of the governor just
    to deny the people’s choice and foist an unpopular candidate that
    will cause misfortune to the party as their preferred candidate he has
    just disengaged with INEC as Resident Electoral Commissioner and he
    is yet to get his membership right with APC and has not totally
    disengagement with INEC. Since this matter became open in the
    public domain the governor has remained silent over it, this means
    silence is consent. He has the authority to caution all the
    perpetrators.
    Other issues the 18 aspirants would like the party leadership in the
    state to address immediately is the use of the former adhoc
    delegates with amendments it is totally objected by us and as major
    stakeholders of the governorship primary we insist that an election
    must be held in all the 207 federal ward to come up with the five
    delegate of which two must be women. The rumor of a concocted
    list of adhoc delegate is here by objected by all of us.
    We implore the state chairman not to key into this act of derailment
    of our much labored efforts that by today the state party leadership
    should place list of returning officers for the exercise of tomorrow
    where elected delegates will emerge.
    While we acknowledge that members of the legacy pressure group
    have a right to converse votes for their preferred aspirant but they
    do not have the right to usurp the powers of the party in the state or
    try acts capable of turning the APC fortune to misfortune.
  • The governor should try to own up to his neutrality the party
    as empires should maintain their neutrality and limit their
    choices during voting as any overt attempt to take sides will
    surely erode the confidence reposed on them, any state
    executive member who wishes to campaign – The Plateau state APC governorship forum has unanimously
    resolved that before the governorship primary we shall present
    to the party a consensus candidate who has the quality to win
    at the general election against other parties’ candidate.
    We have equally resolved that all of us shall join the consensus
    candidate in his campaign and we shall contribute financially and
    otherwise to the success of APC in the state.
  • If the state party leadership allows those bend on subverting
    our nascent democracy to thrive it shall put the state chapter
    into crisis and we the 18 aspirants have vowed and agreed to
    dump the party with our teaming supporters for any party of
    our choice.
    Thank you all for taking your time out and we trust you will do
    justice to the points raised.
    Thank you all and God bless.
    Long live the federal republic of Nigeria,
    Long live APC,
    Long live Plateau state and
    Long live Plateau state APC governorship aspirants.
  1. Chief. Amos Y. Gizo – Chairman/Convener
  2. Danyaro Dakon Sarpiya – Secretary
  3. HE. Prof. Sonnie Tyoden
  4. Shem Y. Damisa
  5. Amb. Chief Yohanna Margif
  6. Dr. Danlami Lenkop
  7. Dist. Sen. Hezekiah A. Dimka
  8. Compt. David D. Dimka
  9. Mr. Geofrey Yileng
  10. Mr. Johnson Podar
  11. Mr. Sunday Garba Biggs
  12. Mr. Kizito Gukas
  13. Mr. Sipak Shaset
  14. Mr. Shehu Barde Pukat
  15. Barr. Garba S Pwul
  16. Prof. C. J. Dakas
  17. Dr. Fitka Steve
  18. Dr. Patrick Sunday Dakum
    …………………………………..
    …………………………………………
    Chief Dr. Amos Y Gizo
    Dr. Danyaro Dakom Sarpiya
    Chairman/Convener
    Secretary

count | 203

Disquiet in Plateau APC as 18 Governorship Aspirants Threaten to Quit Party

| Politics, Press Release |
About The Author
- Friday Bako is Certified National Accountant (CNA), Blogger, Social Media Influencer/Strategist, Youth Activist and Advocate for good governance.