|
BNW |
|
B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Governors' bid to end ANPP leadership crisis fails
THE leadership crisis within the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) is far from being over as its elected governors yesterday failed to resolve the dispute.
The governors, who met for more than eight hours up to the early hours of yesterday, could not arrive at a conclusion.
Instead, they directed a return to the status quo ante, pending further meeting among themselves.
The party had been engulfed in factional fighting, leading to the alleged suspension of its National Chairman, Don Etiebet and the installation of his deputy, Gen. Jeremiah Useni, as acting chairman, a claim denounced by the Etiebet group, which still claims to be the true leadership of the party.
But rising from its consultative meeting yesterday, the governors, under the aegis of the ANPP Governors' Forum, directed that all the parties in the dispute remain silent on the matter pending when an amicable solution would be found to the issue.
The statement read by the Yobe State Governor, Alhaji Bukar Abba Ibrahim, said in part: " We, the seven elected governors of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) met today (yesterday) in Abuja and reviewed the recent developments in our party. We resolved unanimously to constitute ourselves as a vehicle for full reconciliation in our party in accordance with the provisions of our party's constitution.
"A meeting of relevant organs of the party will shortly be summoned at which all issues in dispute will be addressed. In the meantime, all parties to the recent crisis are advised to restrain themselves from any further public statements on this development.
"Meanwhile, millions of our party supporters and indeed all Nigerians are hereby assured that we shall do everything within our powers to ensure that we live up to expectations by keeping our party united and virile enough as the only hope of the common man for good governance in Nigeria."
The briefing was attended by Governors Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State; Mohammed Adamu Aliero of Kebbi; Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa of Sokoto; Sani Ahmed Yerima of Zamfara; Bukar Abba Ibrahim of Yobe, and Ali Modu Sheriff of Borno State.
Jigawa State governor was represented by his deputy, Alhaji Hassan Ibrahim Hadejia, as well as the ANPP leader in the House of Representatives, Dr. Ahmed Saliq.
Ibrahim declined further comments outside the text, saying that doing so would aggravate the situation.
Answering a question, he remarked that the governors had resolved not to allow the crisis to affect the fortune of the party, saying the situation in the party was not peculiar but a true reflection of democracy.
Asked if the instruction meant a return to the status quo, the Yobe governor said: "As you can see in paragraph two, we resolved unanimously to constitute ourselves as a vehicle for the attainment of full reconciliation in accordance with the constitution of our great party. So any action which is unconstitutional obviously will be treated as such and any action which is constitutional will be affirmed".
The governor said there was no way they would allow the conflict to degenerate, arguing that allowing it to go beyond this would not be in the best interest of democracy.
In complying with the ban on comments by the governors, Etiebet did not speak on the crisis, saying, doing so would jeopardise the ongoing reconciliation efforts by the governors.
"The only thing I can say now is to express my deep appreciation to their Excellencies, the governors of our party, for their genuine interest in reconciliation within our ranks," he said.
|
|
||||||||||||
