The Concerned APC Stakeholders, an All Progressives Congress (APC) support group, has named “fifth columnists” and other elements working against the party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s, electoral triumph on February 25.
Rev. Dominic Alancha, the group’s convener, revealed the elements at a press conference on Saturday in Abuja. He said that these elements are advancing their efforts to thwart the APC presidential candidate through a variety of unpopular and anti-people policies imposed on the nation, turning the populace against the ruling party and its candidates.
He named as saboteurs the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele; Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC), Mr. Mele Kyari; and several members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC).
Unmasking the accused elements, Alancha stated that his organization supports the governor of Kaduna State and is confident that the saboteurs’ efforts will fail and the APC presidential candidate will win.
According to him, “We want to use this opportunity to align with some of our leaders who had spoken of certain sabotage of this administration, of this President and of this party. Notable among them to us are the following;
“The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF). A man who we all celebrated his appointment but has turned out to be one of the biggest disasters and saboteurs of the Buhari administration. He has sat down on board appointments that could have gone to party faithfuls for more than 3 years.
“Even when the President directly ordered him and the Chief of Staff to accommodate young party members on a visit led by our Leader Barr. Ismaeel Ahmed in 2021, few months to the end of the tenure this man has done nothing of the sort. Thereby eliciting the anger of party faithful especially the younger members of our party.”
The group also mentioned the CBN Governor Emefiele for introducing anti–people monetary policy that has inflicted hardship on the people.
“The CBN Governor has undermined this government and the party by bringing out anti-people policies designed to hurt citizens and has stubbornly insisted on not shifting ground by allowing a gradual withdrawal of the old Naira note within a period of at least six months. It is very clear that he had chosen to make a few people rich in this govt at the detriment of majority of Nigerians.”
Also accused was the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr. Mele Kyari, for his failure to ensure steady supply of petroleum products and price control. According to the group, the NNPC boss “is hellbent on undermining our president, President Mohammadu Buhari and our party the All Progressive Congress (APC).”
The group also pointed accusing fingers at the complacency of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party. Accusing it of not giving the much needed leadership direction that can galvanise party members and work for the success of the party at the polls.
Lamenting the lackluster attitude of the NWC to the party’s presidential campaign, the group complained that, “This is the first time in the history of political campaigns that a ruling party failed in her responsibility to mobilize members and critical stakeholders of the party to raise campaign funds for the party, neither has it called for a NEC meeting to look into the wellbeing of the party and the campaign.”
On the recent policies of government that have inflicted untold hardships on the people, the group said the recently introduced policies have plunged the country into a serious mess as witnessed with some pockets of protest across the country.
They noted that the currency redesign may be necessary, the implementation was ill-timed and counter productive, describing the policy as distractive, grossly anti-masses and inimical to the electoral success of the ruling party.
“The Naira redesign policy is a good policy that is long overdue. But the timing is absolutely horrible and we condemn it. We condemn it because the timing is short and very restrictive. It has plunged the country into a serious mess like we are witnessing with some pockets of protests across the country due to inability of citizens to access the newly redesigned Naira notes, grounding the economy to a complete halt.
“We fear if this continues, it will lead to a complete and total breakdown of law and order.”