Katsina APC Congress Committee Raises the Alarm over Elections in Funtua Senatorial District

• Congress materials were diverted, say committee members

Jonathan Eze

Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Ward and Local Government Congress Committee in Katsina State have raised the alarm over the congresses held in the state.

This is as three members of the committee that supervised the congress in the senatorial district have written a minority report, claiming that the congress election materials were diverted.

In a report to the party’s national secretary, the committee stated that four local governments in the zone were affected.

Members of the committee included Hon. Sanusi Kunde, Chief Innocent Anike and Mr. Abdulrasheed Ahmad, and were like others across the nation sworn in at the national secretariat of the party on April 3, 2018.

The report obtained by THISDAY reads in part: “Elections were conducted across the state in Katsina peacefully. However, for some inexplicable reasons and despite all the measures put in place in Funtua Zone, materials meant for some local governments like Faskari, Dandume, Musawa and Kankara, were diverted and election venues moved away from APC party offices/local government secretariats to secret location, which is in gross violation of the stipulated guidelines for the conduct of elections.”

They called on the national secretary to use his office to ensure that members of the party in Katsina State feel a sense of fairness.

They said this would help the party to avoid embarrassing and tarnishing the name of President Muhammadu Buhari in his home state.

“We are however calling on the National Secretary to use his office to ensure that members of the party in Katsina State are not robbed by ensuring a course of justice and fairness.”

A competent source, who is also a commissioner in the state, informed THISDAY that the congresses in the district were a sham.

He faulted the claim by the governor and his loyalists that elections took place in the senatorial district.

The source said the governor and his loyalists did not participate in the election and as such, could not have known that there was election or none because they were more interested in following President Muhammadu Buhari at the time the polls were supposed to be taking place.

He wondered how the governor and his loyalists could have been elected when they were not on ground to participate in the process.

He said the plan of the governor and his loyalists were targeted at excluding the Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman, whom they felt should remain in Kaduna and be part of the process there.