Shekarau, Bafarawa, others set Drop APC plot next move - premiumtimesng.com

The former Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, yesterday led a Kano delegate to meet with a former Sokoto governor, Attahiru Bafarawa, over the control of the All Progressives Congress, APC. Both men were founding members of the APC and leaders of defunct parties that merged to form the APC.

While Mr. Shekarau was the presidential candidate of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, in the 2011 election, Mr. Bafarawa was a presidential aspirant in the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN.

The two men have, however, lost out in the APC politics as the party structures in their states have been handed over to the state governors who decamped from the Peoples Democratic Party to the APC.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr. Shekarau said he and his supporters, as well as Mr. Bafawara, were consulting with their people on the way forward for the APC. “We are in Sokoto to consult with our friends and bothers, especially His Excellency, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa,” the former Kano governor said.

“As you are aware, both of us in Kano, Sokoto, Adamawa, Kwara and Rivers have similar predicament as far as the operations of the APC is concerned.” The ‘predicament’ Mr. Shekarau spoke of is the decampment of governors of those states to the APC from the PDP, which has made the party hand over its structures in the respective states to incumbent governors.

Mr. Shekarau said he and Mr. Bafarawa were working together because “we have the concern for the growth and development of the APC. And if there is anything that needs to be done, we need to put hands together to address such an issue.”

 He said he and other aggrieved APC members had written to the party’s national leadership. “As to our opposition to some of the directives given by it and the management of the party, which we felt were unconstitutional, the leadership is yet to respond to our plight.

In fact, they have not even given any acknowledgment to our letters,” he said. Mr. Shekarau also said he and other aggrieved members of the party had not decided to leave and were still reviewing the situation. There had been reports that Mr. Shekarau and other APC leaders in affected states would decamp to the PDP. “

As far as we are concerned, our discussions have been centred on the way forward to solve and resolve the disagreement between us; as stakeholders in our respective states and the leadership of the party,” he said.