By Ibrahim Abdul
A pressure group, Adamawa Youth for Change and Consolidation, has frowned at the move by a group of politicians in the state to impose President Muhammadu Buhari’s in-law, Mahmood Halilu Ahmed, as the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
noting that such moves may spell doom for the party come 2019 general polls.
Addressing newsmen in Yola, the state’s capital, Medan Kongo, the spokesman of the group, said it became expedient at this time to call on President Buhari to wade into the matter in order to save it from an imminent defeat in 2019 elections.
The group regretted how some forces averse to Governor Jibrilla Bindow were hell-bent on subverting due process in order to impose Mr Buhari’s in-law as the party’s torchbearer in the forthcoming party primary in the state.
“Your excellency may be shocked to know that Adamawa state is about to be dragged into similar situation Rivers State people faced during the dark days of Goodluck Jonathan.
“The promoters of the political aspiration of Mahmud Halilu, your in-law, are trying to rubbish your image by intimidating the party using your name to force on Adamawa citizens, their candidate not minding the effects of their action to your political aspiration and dignity before the citizens of Adamawa who have their highest regards to you Mr. President.
“As father of the nation and leader of the All Progressives Congress, we call on you to caution the leadership of our great party, the APC not to be allowing itself to be used by some self-centred and over ambitious people at the detriment of our great party.
“We frown at the behaviour and impunity of Mr Halilu Modi who threatened to call Abuja and postpone the primary which was on-going after the accreditation of delegates.
“Modi made good the threat by calling the national chairman of APC ordering him to postpone the election immediately after the NWC of APC falls into the prey of Modi antics.
“If not the governor was at hand to calm the delegates, the entire exercise would have ended in fracas.
“We are calling on president Buhari and the national chairman of APC to call Modi to order as his ambition is not worth the blood of any Adamawa citizen.
“If we may recall the repeat of 2015 in Adamawa state is what we are witnessing today when Nuhu Ribadu was imposed by the then ruling party and unfortunately lost the general election,” Mr Kongo said.
The group, therefore, expressed optimism that Mr Buhari, who is renowned for his demeanour against injustice and impunity, would not allow such travesty to happen in the state chapter of the party.
However, the group stated that it was aware how the intrigue that led to the cancellation of the already started primary election started, saying: “We want to tell the national chairman of the APC that winning the primaries does not mean winning the general election.
“I want to make it clear that if Modi is imposed, the tenure of APC will come to an end.
“The Adamawa State Working Committee opted to use an indirect congress in the conduct of all elections for the upcoming primaries of the APC in the state and got the approval of NWC.
“But just abruptly without any serious justification, the NWC stopped the ongoing process, dissolved the credible Giyade election committee earlier sent to Adamawa and rescheduled the election to October 4, 2018 and also altered election mode from indirect to direct primaries.”
