APC Faction Emerges in Kogi

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The inauguration Monday of an interim Executive Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State blew open the cold war brewing among the various stakeholders of the party in the state as the party finally broke into two factions.

The interim committee is being headed by the former Chairman of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the state, Alhaji Mohammed Mabo Kassim.

Although the inauguration of the excutive was done by the Deputy National Legal Adviser of the party, James Ocholi, a governorship candidate on the platform of the CPC in the 2011 election in the state, this seemed not to have received the blessing of other stakeholders of the party.

The group loyal to the former governor of the state, Abubakar Audu, was said to have boycotted the exercise, alleging that due process was not followed.

The Chairman of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Alhaji Hadi Ametuo, who spoke to THISDAY immediately after the inauguration in Lokoja, said the whole exercise was a charade as nobody was authorised by the national secretariat to constitute the interim executive of the state without the consent of the zonal vice-chairman of the party in the North-central, Alhaji Muhammed Aboki.

“You can see that many prominent persons that are members of the party in the state including the former governor, Abubakar Audu, Senator Usman Attai Aidoko, Rotimi Obadonfin, Dino Melaye and a host of others were not there because there was no due process and we want to be seen to be law abiding persons, so we are waiting for the national secretariat," he stated.

Meanwhile, the newly-inaugurated state interim committee of the party, Alhaji Mohammed Mabo Kassim, has expressed confidence that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would be defeated in the next general election in the state.

Kassim said Nigerians were tired of empty promises, stating that the PDP had nothing to show since 1999 that they have 'held the country hostage.'

He pointed out that the coming election would afford Nigerians another great opportunity to put an end to the current injustice, maladministration and corruption that had become the hallmark of the present government.

While inaugurating the committee, Ocholi stressed the need for them to carry everybody along in the task of taking the APC to higher heights.

He posited that the efforts the members of the committee had put in would contribute in no small way in repositioning the party in the state, urging them to start work in earnest as there was no time to waste.