Africa-Press – Nigeria. The North-Central All Progressives Congress, APC, Forum has told President Bola Tinubu that the wrong people are getting national appointments from Plateau State.
The North-Central APC Forum made the assertion in a statement on Thursday while reacting to the rejection of Governor Caleb Mutfwang’s possible defection to the APC by leaders of the party in Plateau State.
The APC Forum has been campaigning for Mutfwang to dump the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the APC. But APC leaders in Plateau have opposed the move, passing a resolution to reject the governor’s coming.
However, in a statement on Thursday, the North-Central APC Forum drew Tinubu’s attention to the situation in Plateau, noting that those who are getting national appointments from the state are not those who worked for the President’s election in 2023.
The statement, signed by Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, a member of the APC campaign council in the 2023 election, urged Tinubu to intervene in the campaign to draft Muftwang into the APC before the 2027 election.
APC national chairman, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda is one of the party members from Plateau State who have received national appointments under Tinubu’s administration.
Yilwatda was first appointed Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, before he was named APC national chairman.
Also, Tinubu recently nominated Dr. Bernard Mohammed Doro as a minister from Plateau State. Doro replaced Yilwatda as minister from Plateau State.
Yilwatda was the APC governorship candidate in Plateau in the 2023 election. He lost to Muftwang of the PDP.
The Forum noted that even though the APC gubernatorial running mate in Plateau State lost his polling unit and ward to the PDP in the last election, he is among those lined up for federal appointment.
The North-Central APC Forum, in the statement, equally insisted on its campaign to convince Muftwang to join the party.
Parts of the statement read, “We want to inform President Bola Tinubu that he is making wrong appointments in Plateau State. We want to bring to his attention the glaring and unfortunate fact that those who worked for him are not being given appointments, they have been left stranded while those who did not even vote for him are getting big appointments at the national level.
“These people that are being nominated for federal appointments from Plateau State did not even win their polling units in the last election. In most of their polling units, the candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, won the election.
“What makes the situation even more unfortunate is that we are trying to bring a person that has capacity – in the person of Governor Caleb Mutfwang – into the party but these same set of people who are feasting on what they did not work for are frustrating our efforts by taking different actions to block the governor from joining the APC.
“We are still calling on Mr President to intervene on this issue, because all our concern is for his second tenure. These people are not telling him the truth, they are deceiving him about the state of political affairs in Plateau State.
“We urge the President to check the results from all their polling units in the 2023 election to confirm what we are saying. He will notice that none of them delivered their polling units, talk less of local governments or even wards.
“The opposition won in all their areas. Instead of joining hands with us to woo the governor to join the APC, which will surely strengthen the party, they are busy frustrating the movement.”
The APC Forum noted that those opposing Mutfwang’s coming to the party are doing so because of selfish interest, as they intend to contest elections in 2027.
But it stressed that the Plateau APC leaders who are working against Mutfwang’s defection lack the capacity to defeat him in any election.
“These people that are getting appointments did not vote for President Bola Tinubu in the last election. In fact, most of them are not even politically active – they lack knowledge of national politics. They have not even served as party delegates or in any other capacity. They are getting big federal appointments even when they don’t know anything about politics.
“We are also asking Mr President to warn these people to desist from frustrating efforts to get Governor Caleb Mutfwang to join the APC. We are pushing for Governor Mutfwang to join the APC because we need him to produce the six million votes we earlier promised President Tinubu from the North-Central.
“The President should call them to order because they are trying to block Governor Mutfwang simply because they want to contest election even when they know they don’t have the capacity to win. We don’t want any cracks in the internal affairs of the APC, that is why we are urging Mr President to intervene quickly,” the statement added.
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