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From John .Adams, Minna
As the internal crisis rocking the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) across the country rages on, the peace parley in the instance of Niger state Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello to mend fence among the aggrieved members of the party in the state suffered a major set back on Tuesday as all the three senators from the state were missing in the meeting.
Senator Mohammed Sani Musa (Niger East), Senator Aliyu Abdullahi Sabi (Niger North) and Senator Ibrahim Bima (Niger south) were all ocnsqupiously missing at the meeting.
Also, only seven out of the 11 House of Representatives members from the state were said to have attended the meeting which was held at the main hall of the government house in Minna.
No reason was given by the governor during his opening remarks at the meeting for the absence of these three key state zonal leaders of the party and members of the House of Representatives, a pointer that all is not well with the ruling party in the state.
A source close to the meeting informed Daily Sun that also missing in the meeting, are some critical stakeholders fingered by some of the aggrieved members of the party of fueling the crisis in the party due to their personal interest.
The peace parley by the governor is coming barely three weeks after the state working committee of the party set up a reconciliatory committee headed by the former Minister of state for mineral resources, Alhaji Abubakar Bawa Buwari which is yet to make any desire impact in the reconciliation efforts.
The crisis in the Niger APC which began with the removal of the state Chairman, Engineer Jibrin Imam and the Secretary, Barrister Mohammed Liman in 2020, took a different dimension during the Ward, local government and state congresses of the party where some members threatening to quit the party over the hijacking of the process.
However the climax of the crisis in the party was during the recently concluded party Primaries ahead of the 2023 general elections with the exercise marred with a number of irregularities, resulting in accusation and counter accusations over what some of the aggrieved members described as a high level manipulations to favor some proffered Aspirants.
The governor is one of the beneficiaries of the these manipulations at the just concluded primary elections as the party was accused of manipulating the Niger North Senatorial Primary Election in his (governor’s) favor, leading to his emergence at the party Senatorial candidate ahead of 2023 general election.
Despite several petitions by the incumbent senator, the Deputy Chief Whip, senator Aliyu Abdullahi Sabi before the party primary elections appeal committee over the out come of the primary, no action was taken as the party insisted that Governor Bello remains the candidate.
In addition to this, only nine House of Representatives members secured the tickets of the party ahead of the general election, and in the state house of assembly only two out of the 25 APC members made it, all as a result of the manipulation of the Primary elections.
But the governor while addressing the handful of stakeholders, mainly his appointees at the meeting, admitted that all is not well with the party, saying that people are aggrieved.
He nonetheless stressed the need for the aggrieved members to forget the outcome of the just concluded party primaries and forge ahead, adding that “those who will loose have lost and those who will win have won”.
He therefore appealed for unity amongst the members ahead of the general elections as that is the only way that the party can retain power in the state.
