Just In: 18 APC Plateau State Guber Aspirants Threaten To Dump The Party

Gubernatorial aspirants under the platform of the All progressive Congress in Plateau state have threaten to leave the party if due process is noforrrlowed in electing the flag bearer for the party ahead of the primaries.

Addressing a Press conference in Jos on Monday, Chairman/convener of the forum of APC Governorship aspirants, Chief Amon Gizo insisted that an attempt by the Governor of Plateau state, Simon Lalong or the Party hierarchy to foist a candidate on the party and the people of plateau state will be resisted.

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The forum is also asking the party leadership to address forthwith the use of ad hoc delegates with amendments for the primaries.

The list of those who are members of the forum include the Deputy Governor, Sonnie Tyoden, Professor Dakas Dakas, Mr. Sunday Biggs , Doctor Patrick Dakum and 14 others.

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Read Press Text Below:

TEXT OF PRESS CONFERENCE OF 18 PLATEAU APC GOVERNORSHIP

ASPIRANTS BY CHIEF AMOS GIZO CHAIRMAN/CONVENER OF THE

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FORUM. HELD ON MONDAY 9TH MAY 2022 AT KALWA HOUSE, JOS.

Gentlemen of the press.

It is my pleasure and a privilege to be amongst you this morning.

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– It has made it a necessity for us to address you this morning

considering recent development in our great party the APC

Plateau state chapter.

– It is no longer news that the issue of the moment is the 2023

general elections; most political parties are busy with primaries

to produce party flag bearers to beat the INEC schedules.

– Our party the APC is not left out of there process by preparing

guidelines and schedule of primaries sales of forms for all

elective positions are ongoing and is expected to close by

Tuesday the 10th of May 2023.

– As the processes are going on in the sate the executive

Governor of Plateau State Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong and the

state chairman Hon. Rufus Bature sermonad and enlarged

stake holders meeting at the government house on Monday

18th/4/2022 they admonished all aspirants to speak to

themselves on possible withdrawals and a possibility of coming

up with a consensus candidate.

– This we started immediately after the parley but we as

governorship aspirants were invited by the state chairman Hon.

Rufus Bature at the state secretariat at kalwa on the 25/4/2022

recterated the govern house position and asked us to try to

help the party and ourselves by trying to agree and to come up

with a consensus candidate or at least reduce the number of

governorship aspirants at the end of the meeting the state

chairman gave legitimacy to the Plateau governorship aspirants

forum by appointing Chief Amos Gizo as the chairman convener

of all the over 20 APC governorship aspirants.

– As the ruling party in the state and at the center our desire is to

produce credible, qualified and electable candidates who are

loyal to the party leadership and a person without baggage as

we want to return power beyond the 16 years of PDP.

– We know what it is to be in government and to be outside

government and we don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the

previous leaders who could not install their successors by being

selfish of imposing unpopular candidates.

– The press conference is a collective agreements and position of

about 18 governorship aspirants of APC Plateau state who have

all indicated interests for the number one seat of the state.

– The governor and the leadership of the party in the state all

confirmed that all of us are most qualified that the least

qualified of the APC aspirant is better than the most qualified

of candidates of the other parties.

We are all passionate about the Plateau state project, all interested

in changing the narratives of a new secured, developed Plateau. All

of us have met and spoken and have asked ourselves the question of

how did we come to this decay? Where did we get it wrong?

We all agreed that Plateau is not progressing as the indices of

progress show that we are derailing from the prestigious 3rd position

in the 60s, 70s and 80s amongst the states of the north to 12th, this

means something is fundamentally wrong with successive

administrations of the state that the political will to propel positive

developments by our founding fathers these are what we have

discussed and all willing to change.

The APC governorship aspirants on the Plateau are seasoned experts

in their fields ranging from academic professors, doctors,

administrators, accountants, and financial experts, lawyers,

surveyors etc. All willing to key into the new Plateau project.

The aspirants in our meetings have resolved as follows.

At our maiden meeting, the aspirants resolved as follows:

There should be no impositions of any kind and consensus will

be done by the aspirants themselves.

We all agreed that any aspirant that becomes the consensus

candidate will be supported by all.

We all agreed that whoever emerges will have the blue print of

other aspirants to be embedded into his manifestos and

programs.

We all agreed that delegates will emerge by either the

consensus of the aspirants or election must take place at the

various designated wards and local government.

That no concurred list will be accepted.
The party leadership should ensure strict compliance to the

guidelines of the party for the conduct of the adhoc delegates

and our position has been communicated to the party leadership by

our chairman chief Amos Gizo and the secretary Dr Danyaro serpiya

by our mandate.

This press conference is to let you members of the fourth estate of

the realm know and in turn let the world and particularly the

leadership of our party at the natural level know our position and to

proudly say that for the first time matured men aspiring for the same

position and all put their personal ambitions and interest on time to

chart a course for the collective interest of Plateau and have vowed

that they will come up with a consensus governorship candidate for

APC on the Plateau before the primaries.

This press conference is necessitated by what looked like rumor but

has been evident by the body language of the state governor Rt.

Hon. Simon Bako Lalong with members of the first family (wife and

brothers) his father in-law. Mr Cyril Tsenyil the Accountant general of

the state, Mr Festus Fuanter the deputy national secretary of APC

anchored by the member representating pankshin, kanke and kanam

at the national assembly Rt. Hon. Yusuf Adamu Gagdi to subjugate

the Collective will of the members of APC by imposing a candidate on

members of the party in the person of Dr. Nentawe Yilwada Goshen

which is unacceptable to all of us. We all believe this act of

subverting democracy has the express approval of the governor just

to deny the people’s choice and foist an unpopular candidate that

will cause misfortune to the party as their preferred candidate he has

just disengaged with INEC as Resident Electoral Commissioner and he

is yet to get his membership right with APC and has not totally

disengagement with INEC. Since this matter became open in the

public domain the governor has remained silent over it, this means

silence is consent. He has the authority to caution all the

perpetrators.

Other issues the 18 aspirants would like the party leadership in the

state to address immediately is the use of the former adhoc

delegates with amendments it is totally objected by us and as major

stakeholders of the governorship primary we insist that an election must be held in all the 207 federal ward to come up with the five delegate of which two must be women. The rumor of a concocted

list of adhoc delegate is here by objected by all of us.

We implore the state chairman not to key into this act of derailment

of our much labored efforts that by today the state party leadership

should place list of returning officers for the exercise of tomorrow

where elected delegates will emerge.

While we acknowledge that members of the legacy pressure group

have a right to converse votes for their preferred aspirant but they

do not have the right to usurp the powers of the party in the state or

try acts capable of turning the APC fortune to misfortune.

– The governor should try to own up to his neutrality the party

as empires should maintain their neutrality and limit their

choices during voting as any overt attempt to take sides will