...Says Chairman, Secretary not committed to APC constitution

Describes Omisore a murderer, witch 

A member of the National Working Committee NWC of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC Salihu Moh Lukman, has revealed how the party's national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu and the national secretary, Iyiola Omisore, refused to support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu with part fund during the election.

According to Lukman, APC raked in over N30 Billion through the sale of nomination forms alone before the general elections, and about N5 Billion was also donated to the party.

The chieftain was reacting to some allegations leveled against him by the national chairman and the national secretary during a live interview on two separate Televisions on Tuesday's evening.

Senator Iyiola Omisore, on Tuesday night had described the Mallam Salihu Lukman, as a loose canon and the ‘black sheep’ of the party.

The national secretary also denied that the APC was aware of some disgruntled members seeking the removal of the party’s National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu.

Omisore, in the interview said: "What else do you want us to do to him? Beat or kill him? When you listen to people like Lukman, you won’t know what is happening. This your Lukman that doesn’t attend meetings. He is acting like a loose canon."

In a reaction at a press conference, Wednesday in Abuja, Lukman said both Senator Adamu and Omisore are not committed to the constitution of APC, hence they are afraid of debate and doing the right thing.

"I listened to the chairman and national secretary of the party and I would say these two are in denial. There is clearly problem. I don't want to belabour the issue in terms of statements that have been made that are incorrect. But I would go straight to the issues which are constitutional. 

"The national secretary said when he was asked what the caucus and National Executive Council NEC meeting is supposed to achieve and he said the meeting is supposed to celebrate the victory and celebrate the President. For goodness sake, there are statutory issues. I think the national secretary may have spoken either out of anger in trying to sweep issues under the carpet. But our constitution clearly outlines issues which the NEC should address."

Lukman listed his demands to include: Presentation of the quarterly reports of its party activities to NEC, quarterly reports of the income and expenditure of the party, presentation of a proposed national budget to the NEC for approval by the provision of Article 13, 3A.14 of the APC constitution, resignation of the national chairman and secretary, among others.

He said: "Talking of national budget we are just coming out of elections whereby we are not able to sustain past precedence. What was the past precedence? Under Comrade Adams Oshiomhole in 2019 every candidate of the party recieved something from the national secretariat. 

"This last election no candidate of the candidate recieved a dime from the party. Talking of finances in our constitution the NEC is supposed to approve some form of sharing formula. I am aware that each state chapter have received about N20 million out of the N30 billion , put together that is about N700 million less than a billion which is less than 3 percent of the total income that has been earned. Yet we want to sweep this under the carpet. We are having states, zonal, local councils and ward levels who are left on their own. The whole question of funding of the party has not been addressed."

When asked whether the party supported President Bola Tinubu with fund, Lukman said: "He (Tinubu) didn't get a dime from the party. I am making this public. Let them challenge me and contradict me."

On whether,  if he had idea of what was given to former President Muhammad Buhari in 2015 and 2019, he said: "Look in 2015, the party was truly a model party. President Buhari doesn't have money. People were assigned responsibility to raise money. It's just like Asiwaju and you say Asiwaju have money. So there were people assigned with the responsibility of mobilizing money for the party. 

"If anything was done in 2023 based on that it would be the initiative of Asiwaju. I am not aware of it as a party. If you remember in-between we were busy causing distractions about what should be our roles in the presidential campaign council . Unless we are humble and honest to admit that these are things that ordinarily shouldn't have happened and admit we need to correct them and reshape the relationship between us and the government that emerged we would continue to have the problem we are having."

News Editor, Abuja