There were fresh indications weekend that the crisis in All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) was deepening as Sokoto State Governor, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, was said to be pushing on his alleged bid to take over the party for a pre-determined political end in 2007.
Deputy National Welfare Officer of the party, Alhaji Mohammed Murtala, told Sunday Vanguard in Abuja that the Sokoto State Governor was planning to take over the party structure and yield it to some external forces in the scramble for the 2007 presidency.
Murtala, a member of ANPP’s National Executive Council (NEC) and supporter of the defeated presidential candidate in the last general elections, General Muhammadu Buhari, said that Bafarawa’s game plan would “collapse woefully if he thinks he can force his agenda on us without consulting with us to know whether we approve of such agenda or not”.
It was learnt that despite the announced cease-fire and reconciliation being pursued by the party leadership across board following the quashing of the suspension of the party’s National Secretary, Alhaji Ibrahim El-Katuzu and Bafawara for alleged anti-party activities, the Bafarawa group was still perfecting a plot to oust the party’s National Chairman, Chief Don Etiebet, who is seen as protecting Buhari’s interest in the party. Sources close to Bafarawa said that he was considering running for the presidential ticket of the party and if that doesn’t work, make the party’s structure available to an outsider to run on. It was learnt that he had been funding the party machinery nationwide, preparatory to the grand launch of his presidential campaign.
It was however not clear how the other governors of the ANPP would react to this scenario, but it was gathered that they might gang up to scuttle Bafarawa’s plot against Buhari and Etiebet. Feelers from the party said that Bafarawa’s colleagues were not happy with the way he had been carrying himself as if he is “Governor-General” of the party.
Sunday Vanguard has gathered in the meantime that the Chief Ume Ezeoke-led committee dispatched to Sokoto to inform Bafarawa of the decision of the party’s National Caucus lifting his suspension has returned to Abuja.
It was gathered that a mild drama ensued when the committee met with the other governors Thursday night on their return to Abuja as Governor Adamu Aliero of Kebbi allegedly gave a member of the party’s Board of Trustees, Lt. General Jeremiah Useni, a dressing down on the grounds that he was involved in the plot to suspend Etiebet and accept to be named acting National Chairman.
Aliero’s anger, as learnt, stemmed from the fact that Useni was one of those mandated by the National Caucus to communicate the decisions of the National Caucus reached Wednesday night annulling the suspension orders clamped on all members of the party by the National Working Committee, including the National Secretary, Alhaji Ibrahim El-Katuzu.
A source said that beneath the facade of resolution of the crisis are quiet moves by the Bafarawa group to undo elements that may frustrate the actualisation of its secret political agenda. Etiebet and the Buhari group are, as learnt, also alert, keeping a tab on the Bafarawa group.
