By Akanji Alowolodu, Gombe
It can best be said that Gombe state chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is presently in a state of Confusion, uncertainty as tension continue to rise within the party hierarchy over the political struggle for supremacy between the Governor, Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya and his erstwhile political benefactor, Senator Muhammad Danjuma Goje.
The battle is for the control of the soul of the party structure in the State ahead of the 2023 general elections which the two gladiators are wanting to prove their political grip of the polity.
Senator Muhammad Danjuma Goje is a two term former Governor of the State and currently represents Gombe Central in the National Assembly while Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya served as the Commissioner of Finance during the tenure making him the closest to the seat of authority then.
The incumbent Governor had all along enjoyed the backing of Sen Danjuma Goje until he contested and won the gubernatorial election in 2019 under the APC but the relationship between the two had recently gone sour following power tussle to control the party structure in the State resulting into a recent political clash which led to lost of lives and destruction of properties.
However, this current tussle witnessed a political drama on Thursday 25th November, 2021, when majority of the party officials in the eleven wards of Yamaltu-Deba Local Government Area met and pledged their loyalty to Senator Muhammad Danjuma Goje, only to immediately called a press briefing in the evening of same day to deny resigning from their positions.
However, while reacting to the development on behalf of the party, Mr Moses Kyari, the party’s Publicity Secretary described the purported resignation as a dangerous and malicious rumour saying, “this is not true; this is a lie from the pit of hell”.
He also said that, “like you’ve just seen, the people concerned have come to address a press conference, the people that supposedly resigned their offices came to debunk that allegation and to tell the true story of what actually transpired”.
According to him, “some of the people whose names appeared on the list are not even in town some are sick and did not go out. How did their names appear in the list? Meaning, it was a rumour”.
In the meantime, Mr. Moses said that the party had received a complaint from the party at the local government level alleging character assassination.
He said, the party will set up a committee to look into the matter stressing, ” we shall definitely take punitive action by going to court to ensure that these people who brought disaffection are brought to book by the laws of the land”.
He also said the party had asked Sen Goje to apologize to the party after the November 5th incident which he failed but that it has set up a committee to formerly write him about the complaints and if nothing is heard from him, it will apply the constitutional means of addressing the matter.
Investigation by our correspondent had shown that a majority of the eleven ward executives of the APC in Yamaltu-Deba had come together to pledge their loyalty to Senator Goje through one of his aides. They were also made to write their names and contact phone numbers on a sheet of paper.
Also denying the the resignation, the chairman of All Progressive Congress (APC) in Yamaltu-Deba LGA, Alhaji Ali Ismaila Kuri, said non of his executive member nor any from the eleven wards forwarded any resignation letter to him.
Speaking in Hausa, he described the resignation issue as laughable and cannot be heard anywhere because according to him, since the matter started raging, nobody among his executive members that he called confirmed ever resigning from his party position.
He said the same thing applied to all the executives in the eleven wards of the Local Government. He said, “they are all here, you have seen them denying one after the other, they are refuting the claims, that they went for a different meeting.
He pledged their loyalty to Governor Inuwa Yahaya adding, ” we are loyal 100 per cent to this Government that is working with the fear of God. This problem was brought from outside “.
“Those that planned that meeting and made those pronouncements to the world, we know who they are and we will call them and ask, who gave them a resignation letter? he queried.