Posted by By FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE, Abuja, KENNY ASHAKA, Kaduna on
Twenty-four hours after new leaders of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) emerged, top notchers of the party are engaged in war of words.
Twenty-four hours after new leaders of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) emerged, top notchers of the party are engaged in war of words.
In one instance, Governor Bukar Ibrahim of Yobe State and his Zamfara State counterpart traded words at a dinner, while in another instance 2003 presidential candidate of the party, Gen. Mohammadu Buhari and Gov Sani Yarima exchanged words.
The two governors, both presidential aspirants, were engaged in a conflict at the dinner organised for the newly elected national executive members of the party at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja on Sunday night.
Daily Sun gathered that Governor Ibrahim had hurriedly put a dinner together to celebrate the election of his candidate, Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke as national chairman and had invited only members of his group to the event.
However, as the event was about to start, Governor Sani and his aides arrived to the chagrin of Alhaji Ibrahim and his supporters.
Shocked by the presence of his rival, Governor Ibrahim allegedly asked his aides who invited Governor Sani to the dinner and said that whoever invited the Zamfara governor should ask him to go.
"My friend, who invited you here? I am organising this for the executives and not for the governors. I can't remember inviting you to this place", Ibrahim told Governor Sani, in Hausa to the shock of people around. He allegedly threatened to call off the dinner but was prevailed upon by his aides.
Governor Sani, who just smiled while his Yobe counterpart was talking, was said to have stayed till the end of the party.
Party sources told Daily Sun that the development was a fallout of the bad blood generated by the outcome of the convention in which the governors engaged in a battle of wit, all in a bid to have control of the party leadership.
None of Governor Sani's aides could be reached for comments on the development. Several calls made to Chief Fidel Ayogu, his campaign co-ordinator, did not go through as at press time.
In a related development Buhari and Alhaji Ahmed Sani traded words over the conduct of the party's national convention. While Buhari said that the process leading to the elections were manipulated, Sani dismissed the claims, saying the elections were free and fair.
Both men spoke on the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporations (BBC) monitored in Kaduna on Monday.
Acording to Gen. Buhari, there was massive rigging during the party's convention at the weekend in Abuja, but Sani said the allegation was baseless, saying that there is no election in the world where people will not make such complains.
Buhari claimed that there was massive rigging during the elections which saw the emergence of the former speaker of the House of Representatives in the Second Republic, Chief Edwin Umeh Ezeoke, as the party's national chairman.
"There was rigging. The delegates were not only given ballot papers to go and put, they were given ballot papers that were already marked to go and put.This is suprising to me. What they did is a betrayal to democracy, not to Buhari. If there was no rain (during the convention), perhaps this rigging would not have been possible. They would have given everybody his ballot paper to go and fill it secretly and making their choices," Gen. Buhari said.
The Zamfara State governor, said that even in the freest and fairest elections people still complain.
"There is no election in the world, whether in Nigeria or America that people will not say it was rigged.
"What I will say is that Gen. Buhari had his own candidates for the election. They were 18 and he shared the position with them. We didn't know this because he didn't tell anybody. If he told other governors, he didn't tell me. Unfortunately for him, God did not give any of his 18 candidates the positions they contested for.
"If were are to adhere to the principles of democracy, then we must accept whoever God has chosen in an election and support him. If in an election you don't have it your own way and you say you will take action, then there will be no democracy. In fact, it will be difficult to co-exist with others," the governor said.