Adamawa Election: Nyako’s loyalists move against Acting Gov. Fintiri, allege he’s APC member ********************** Loyalists of former Governor Murtala Nyako have commenced an intense lobby to stop the acting governor of Adamawa state, Ahmadu Fintiri, from emerging the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at the October, 11 bye-election. They are alleging that Mr. Fintiri is a member of the opposition All Progressives Congress and should therefore be denied the PDP ticket. The acting governor has consistently maintained that he has never left the PDP. However, the secretary of the APC in the state, Abdullahi Bakari, who also supervised the membership registration of the party in the state, Told PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday that his party has evidence of the acting governor’s defection. Mr. Bakari said his party would make available the evidence against Mr. Fintiri as a payback for his ‘treachery’ against former Governor Nyako. “I am surprised that he denied being in APC, as the secretary of the APC in the state, I can authoritatively tell you that Fintiri was registered at his ward in Madagali, in fact we have shared the relevant documents with some PDP stakeholders. “We have already forwarded a petition to the National Secretariat of the party. I am willing to throw more light on his hypocrisy and his treachery,” Mr. Bakari said. Full text of the petition is reproduced below this story PREMIUM TIMES gathered that Mr. Fintiri was one of two lawmakers, the other being Sajoh Gella, who defected to the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, prior to the 2011 election. “The two men were denied waiver to contest election under the PDP, until Governor Nyako personally intervened by going to Abuja to plead on their behalf,” spokesperson of Mr. Nyako, Ahmad Sajoh, said. However, according to Mr. Sajoh, Mr. Fintiri’s kinsmen in Madagali formed a stiff opposition to his candidature, necessitating the transfer of the primary election to the state capital, Yola. Despite all these efforts, Mr. Sajoh said, Mr. Fintiri turned against Governor Nyako by spearheading the impeachment of the Speaker at the time, Sadiq Dasin. The governor had wanted the speakership slot to be given to the central zone in order to balance the power equation in the state. Mr. Nyako as Governor was from the South, his deputy, Ngillari, was from the north, while speaker Dasin was from the central. After the removal of Mr. Dasin, Mr. Fintiri took over the speakership despite being from the north, like the deputy governor. Mr. Fintiri as speaker spearheaded the impeachment of Mr. Nyako and his deputy, Bala Ngilari, over allegations of gross misconduct and financial fraud. The impeachment allowed Mr. Fintiri to emerge as acting governor based on constitutional provision. As the Speaker, he was appointed as acting governor for three months after which a substantive governor will be elected to complete the tenure of Mr. Nyako. Already, there is widespread outrage over the decision of Mr. Fintiri to run for office accusing him of organising a ‘coup’ to assume the mantle of leadership in the state. “It will be a disaster to have someone like Fintiri as governor, he is not fit lo lead a plural state like Adamawa,” Mr. Sajoh said. Throwing more light on the matter, Mr. Sajoh said “Fintiri is known for his treacherous conducts” “Few weeks to the impeachment of Governor Nyako, Fintiri led members of the state House of Assembly to the Governor and passed a vote of confidence in him “But he suddenly turned around to stab him in the back, it is important to remember that throughout those seven years of Nyako, Fintiri had been part of every decision the governor took”. Also, the spokesperson of the APC in the state, Phineas Padio, corroborated his colleagues’ claims, saying Mr. Fintiri had no business even being acting governor. He said even if the lawmakers had succeeded in impeaching the governor, there was no sufficient evidence against his deputy, Ngilari. He accused the acting governor of denying the deputy governor the chance to replace his boss simple because Mr. Ngilari is a Christian. “Fintiri removed Bala Ngilari simply because he is a Christian, otherwise, he would have been allowed to continue and complete the tenure of his principal. “Ngilari chose to remain in the PDP even after his governor defected just to show his loyalty to his party, but that loyalty did not save him from the hands of ambitious Fintiri. “It is regrettable that Christian members in the House of Assembly supported him against a fellow Christian,” Mr. Padio said. Mr. Fintiri could not be reached for comments. His spokesperson, Solomon Kumangar, did not answer or return calls. He also did not respond to a text message sent to him. >>>CONT.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 17:34:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015