The founding leaders of the Allied People’s Movement (APM) are leaving no stone unturned to reclaim what they describe as the rightful ownership of the party, which they said was established by the pioneer Board of Trustees Chairman and current National Chairman of the party, Muhammad Musa Bagana.
Frwshpage gathered that moves are being made to institute another legal battle to stop the factional chairman of the party, Yusuf Mamman Dantale, from parading himself as the National Chairman of the party, aside from the pending case before the Supreme Court.
Alhaji Yusuf Mamman Dantale, the factional chairman and Chairman of the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), is being challenged at the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal set aside the Federal High Court judgment which had recognized Bagana’s faction as the legal executive council.
The case is said to have been pending before the apex court for almost a year.
It was authoritatively gathered that a series of meetings are being held in Abuja to stop what the group described as “illegal immigrants” into the APM.
“The issue with Dantale is purely political fraud, and any attempt by some governors to further polarize the APM will be resisted through every legal means possible,” Muhammad Bello, spokesperson for the Bagana-led faction, told our correspondent during a telephone conversation, stressing that the party would resist any attempt to commercialize democracy.
Two serving governors — Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State and Seyi Makinde of Oyo State — have reportedly declared for the APM.
However, the factional leaders of the party dismissed their membership claims, insisting that Dantale has no legal right to parade himself as the National Chairman of the party.
If information available to our medium is anything to go by, the Bagana-led faction may soon address a world press conference to herald a renewed battle for the ownership of the APM.
The fresh litigation may signal a process that could disrupt the political calculations of politicians such as Bala Mohammed who, on Thursday, picked up a nomination form to contest for the Senate, alongside other aggrieved governors and politicians allegedly lured into the party by the Dantale-led faction.
As it stands, Bala Mohammed’s political journey into the APM may yet be affected by the comment credited to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, who once declared: “I will put fire in Bauchi.”
Or perhaps Bala Mohammed’s response to Wike — “You’re a small boy in politics” — may eventually define the outcome of the Kauran Bauchi’s new political alignment. Nigeria’s political space is indeed entering another season of uncertainty and intrigue.
