Gist Coven

A leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has cautioned that the party must be careful in order not to commit the mistake of promoting an automatic ticket as the Peoples Democratic Party. Tinubu stated this in reaction to a statement credited to Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha statement that the former Lagos State governor was crying more than the bereaved. Okorocha had made the statement in response to media report that Tinubu, had during an interview in Akure, the Ondo State capital, frowned at APC governors’ endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari as the party sole candidate in 2019, allegedly describing the governors as being irrelevant an insignificant to the party’s nomination process. But in his reaction to Okorocha’s attack, Tinubu clarified in a statement on Monday in Lagos, released by his Media Adviser, Mr. Tunde Rahman that he never during the interview said what he was quoted as saying. He said, “We note Imo State Governor Rochas ...

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Adamawa State, Engr. Markus Gundiri, has expressed doubt over the loyalty of Governor Jibrilla Bindow to the party following the departure of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. Gundiri was a 2015 governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, and also 2011 governorship candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN. He said this while insisting that no politician in Nigeria can defeat President Muhammadu Buhari. Gundiri said the ruling party was waxing stronger in his home state after the exit of Atiku Abubakar. He said this yesterday in Abuja while fielding questions from journalists, adding that Atiku’s return to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, did not have any destabilisation effect on the APC. He said, “Who else in this country today can stand election against Buhari and win? I don’t think there is anyone. “Look, you have to look at the achievements of this president in these few years...

Peoples Democratic Party members at the National Assembly have hit back at President Muhammadu Buhari over his comment that looters would not return to power in 2019. The President, in a veiled reference to the PDP, was quoted to have made the statement on Thursday, at an interactive session with community leaders and stakeholders in Kano. He had said, “Those who ruled Nigeria without vision and looted the nation’s treasury are the same people boasting that they will displace the APC government and return to office. “We will wait and see, if they think Nigerians are ignorant. They have the guts to declare their intention to reclaim office.” But the PDP caucus in the House of Representatives, on Saturday, stated that Buhari was a major beneficiary of funds allegedly looted by PDP leaders. The Deputy Minority Whip of the House, Mrs. Binta Bello, who spoke for the caucus, summed up the views of the PDP, saying that Buhari should rather apologize to Nigerians “for being unable...

A former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mohammed Abba Gana has shared his opinion on why President Muhammadu Buhari should be shown the exit door in 2019. Gana who is a founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, spoke in an interview with Sun, where he maintained that realities on ground have made it clear to the people that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, came with empty promises. He also gave reasons the main opposition party, PDP was ousted from office in 2015, but maintained that things must be done rightly this time. According to him, “In 2015, through rampant cases of imposition of candidates, a lot of people became angry and worked against the PDP. “The campaigns leading to the 2019 elections should be issue based, devoid of pretences and falsehoods. “Nigerians are definitely getting wiser and wiser, therefore lies, propaganda and empty rhetoric alone can no longer work magic for any political party or candidate this time. “People...

Senator Magnus Abe representing Rivers South-East senatorial district in the National Assembly has outlined how the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi caused the current crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State. Abe also vowed that he will not leave the APC for another political party. The Senator traced the crisis to the March 4, 2017 meeting convened by the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, in Port Harcourt. The Senator spoke through his Spokesperson, Parry Saroh Benson in a statement in Port Harcourt on Wednesday. He said, “I will not leave the APC even in the face of needless provocation and unwarranted bitterness. “As I told the state Chairman of the party, last Sunday, every member of the party knows the cause and the reason for the present crisis in the APC in Rivers State and I will also state it here. “The Minister of Transportation made several shocking pronouncements that heralded the root of our present crisis. ...

Nigerian leading lawyer, Festus Keyamo, SAN, has revealed real reason former chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar left the ruling party. Keyamo who took a swipe at Atiku, wondered why the former Vice President could not be bold enough to tell Nigerians why he left APC. Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, yesterday resigned from the party with different reasons. But Keyamo believes Nigerians already know that the ex-VP left because he had little chance of securing a ticket in the ruling APC with President Muhammadu Buhari likely to seek reelection in 2019. The senior lawyer wrote on his twitter handle, @fkeyamo, “The starting point of Atiku’s Presidential bid would have been to simply admit he left APC in search of another party’s ticket. “Nigerians know that already. “It would have been more honourable than given some zigzag reasons to justify his zigzag movements across political parties.”

The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has ruled out  automatic ticket for President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 presidential election in the party. Tinubu said that the party would stick to  democratic process  in choosing who would fly the flag of the party. An online news platform, New Edition, reported that Tinubu spoke on Wednesday  when he spoke with journalists in Akure, Ondo State. The respected politician had earlier met with the leadership of the Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere. His position position is line with that of the Chairman of APC governors forum, Chief Rochas Okoro acha, contradicts that of some state governors of the APC who said they had approved Buhari to run for the 2019 election. The meeting was held at the residence of the leader of the group, Chief Reuben Fasoranti. His words:  “No governors can appropriate the power of endorsement to themselves. Buhari is a believer in due p...

Former Nigerian vice president Atiku Abubakar has dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress, his media aide Paul Ibe said on Friday. Ibe, however, did not state which party the former vice president would join. However, in a statement on Friday, Atiku alleged that the APC had derailed from the principles that made him join the party on February 2, 2015. “While other parties have purged themselves of the arbitrariness and unconstitutionality that led to fractionalization, the All Progressives Congress has adopted those same practices and even gone beyond them to institute a regime of a draconian clampdown on all forms of democracy within the party and the government it produced,” Atiku said in a statement. He also, tacitly, acknowledged the existence of a frosty relationship with the leadership of the party and President Muhammadu Buhari, using a controversial leaked memo sent to Buhari by the governor of Kaduna State Nasir El-Rufai as reference. “Only last year, a govern...

National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Odigie-Oyegun, has said that despite losing the recent Anambra governorship election, the Party’s performance clearly showed inroad is being made in the South East. He stated this on Thursday while receiving some new entrants into the Party at the APC national secretariat, Abuja. He said: “I consider that we have made a lot of gains in spite of not winning Anambra state. “But it is clear if people interpret properly that the APC given the base from which we were starting, given the kind of intense propaganda that goes out there that the South East is against the APC – whether it is religion, ethnic or even historical – we have made some progress. But we are not resting on that. “We are immediately setting up a team to study the elections, to look at whatever significant issues it has thrown up, to find ways in which we can improve our performance as we spread into the rest of the South East, basically to tell us ...

Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President, has declared that he is currently a member of the All Progressives Congress, APC. The former Vice President spoke through his median aide, Paul Ibe when the Concerned Citizens For Atiku, CCA, paid him a visit on Friday. Following calls for Abubakar to return to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Ibe said people are free to express themselves as enshrined in the country’s constitution. According to Ibe, “Well, groups are free, like individuals are free to express their positions, it’s a country of law and there is freedom of expression as enshrined in our constitution. “Having said that, I probably would also remind that his excellency belongs to a political party as we speak.” This is coming at a time when a group known as the South West chapter of the Nigeria Youth Coalition, NYC, admonished the former Vice President to return to the PDP “as soon as possible”. NYC had said the Waziri of Adamawa stands a better chance to clinch the ...