Buhari, Okorocha meet over APC contentious ward congress
President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday
hosted the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, Rochas Okorocha;
and the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Abdulaziz Yari, in
his hometown, Daura, Katsina State.
Buhari had on Friday travelled to Daura
to enable him to take part in the ward congress of the ruling All
Progressives Congress that took place nationwide on Saturday.
The exercise, which was meant to elect
new executives of the party at ward levels, was said to have been held
amidst protests and violence across the country.
The Special Adviser to the President on
Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, had posted photographs of the
President and the Imo State governor on his Facebook page.
Adesina however did not disclose the agenda of the meeting.
“President Buhari receives in audience
Governor Rochas Okorochas of Imo State in Daura, Katsina State on 6th
May, 2018,” the presidential spokesman simply wrote.
But Okorocha confirmed to reporters that
he intimated Buhari on the outcome of the ward congress which was said
to have been marred with crisis and confusion in his state as some
unidentified thugs attacked the state party secretariat located at the
Imo State University junction in Owerri.
Okorocha said, “We expect internal
democracy and internal democracy is the way to go. Those kinds of funny
politics that were played must stop. A situation where people went to
carry ballot boxes, steal results looks so primitive. I intimated Mr.
President and we will make sure that such things stop.”
On what Buhari’s response was, the Imo
governor said, “He spoke like the President and he will take the
necessary steps to correct this in our party, the APC, not just in Imo
State but across the whole nation, to make sure that there is respect
for internal democracy in Imo State.”
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Yari on his part said the exercise went well in the North-East geopolitical zone.
“You know in a democracy, you cannot
expect everything to work 100 per cent. But in our zone from the
information available to us, everything went well in Katsina, Kebbi,
Sokoto, Zamfara and Kano, where people expected that there may be a
problem, the exercise was successful.
“But anybody that has complaint, there
is a committee set up by the national executive of the party. They
should take their complaints there so that they will be attended to,” he
said.
Apart from the fracas that marred the exercise in Imo State, there were also allegations of hijacking of electoral materials.
At the height of the crisis, the APC
officials, posted to the state to conduct the exercise, were said to
have fled to the police command headquarters in Owerri for refuge.
That was as party chieftains, including
senators Benjamin Uwajumogu, Hope Uzodimma, Osita Izunaso, and Ifeanyi
Araraume, protested the development at the police command headquarters.
The Commissioner of Police in the state,
Chris Ezike, was said to have held a closed-door meeting with the APC
leaders for five hours.
It was reported that separate congresses took place in most of the local government areas in the state.
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