Forty-eight hours to the deadline handed down by the New Peoples Democratic Party, nPDP bloc in the All Progressives Congress, APC, on a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, party officials were at the weekend navigating around what they called a knife-edge situation.
The ultimatum from the nPDP came as the party continued to lurch over the crisis that arose from penultimate weekend’s ward congresses that flowed onto the local government area congresses last weekend.
Meanwhile, Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State has denied the allegation of his plan to defect from the APC to his former party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA.
The allegation was contained in a statement issued by a former member of the APC and governorship aspirant in APGA, Uche Onyegocha, who alleged that a N3 billion offer by the governor to facilitate his return to APGA was rebuffed.
Elsewhere, disturbing signals on the state of the party after the APC local government congresses continued through the weekend in several states with reports of parallel congresses in many states.
In Delta State, the contention in the party had at the weekend, narrowed into two major tendencies, led by Otega Emerhor on one side and the pair of Chief Great Ogboru and Senator Ovie Omo-Agege on the other. It was the same story in Enugu, Oyo, Ondo, Kogi among several other states.
The National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, it was gathered, was to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari to present the letter from the nPDP.
Though normally reliable sources revealed that Odigie-Oyegun had a meeting with the President on Saturday, that meeting, we learned, was specifically on the crisis that emanated from the ward and local government area congresses.
A source at the party secretariat, however, said Chief Odigie-Oyegun was slated to meet with the President on Saturday but doubted if the meeting held, “because the President came back to the country on Friday and might require some rest first.”
The nPDP bloc in the party comprising Senate President Bukola Saraki, Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Senators Aliyu Wamakko, Danjuma Goje, Rabiu Kwankwanso among others, were at the national secretariat of the APC last Wednesday where they accused President Buhari of sidelining them in spite of their significant contributions to his election in 2015.
In Delta State, confusion over the outcome of the ward and local government area congresses continued with different stakeholders continuing to stake victory in parallel results. While the Emerhor bloc continued to claim victory on the ground, the Ogboru/Omo-Agege bloc at the weekend dismissed the assertions of the parallel bloc. Senator Omo-Agege in a statement at the weekend issued by his aide, Prince Efe Duku said: “While some fringe elements may have, in defiance of due process, had a few social gatherings in the name of ‘parallel congresses,’ such conduct is fruitless now and will remain so even in the future.
This is the same impunity and desperation that drove some of them to steal some Ward congress materials last week as already confirmed by the police.
“It is just a childish mistake for these elements to believe they can build on their last week’s alleged crime of disappearing to Port Harcourt to write fake results. No one can destabilize APC in Delta State.”
In one of the unfolding developments that occurred in Delta State, it was learned of a significant realignment in the top caucus of the party with the state chairman, Prophet Jones Erue shifting allegiance from the Emerhor tendency to the Ogboru/Omo-Agege tendency. (Vanguard)
