WE WON’T ALLOW IMPOSITION IN GOMBE APC - MAILANTARKI Rep Khamisu Ahmed Mailantarki, member representing Gombe/Kwami/Funakaye Federal constituency in the House of Representatives, in this interview with our correspondent, speaks on the challenges facing the APC in Gombe. Excerpts: Gombe APC has been in crisis for some time now, can’t you come together to sort out your differences? We have tried all means to work together. What we are saying is Senator Danjuma Goje should drop his PDP mentality of personalizing everything and let us run the party the way people want and follow the rules and regulations guiding the party, which he disagreed with and at the moment he is considering organizing his executive members. We have learnt reliably that he doesn’t want to go for the congress. We believe in fair play, justice and fairness to all, so we want to prepare for the congresses. So many things are wrong, even the constitution of our interim management committee is faulty, the creation of the local government management committee is not known to APC. We have lodged several complains to the party leadership but nothing has changed. And even during the registration exercise, the committee that was formed was done without our input and yet we are not complaining because our people were able to register. What we need to tell our supporters is whether Goje wants to go to congresses or not, we are preparing to go to congress in line with the guidelines of the party. States that have similar problems were able to resolve their differences, why is that of Gombe lingering? Yes, some state were able to resolve their differences but in Gombe, we have lodged our complaint to the national leadership of the party and we have met with Goje one on one with the aim of resolving our differences, but he is not familiar with this new way of doing things, he is so committed to doing things the PDP way. In one of our complaints to the national leadership, we asked them to address the issue before the congresses and if that is not done, we are just heading nowhere as far as APC is concerned. We have suffered so much for the party, we have sacrificed so much of our time and resources so we expect any one that is joining us would give a good impression of the party to the world and not to come and do things as if there are no guidelines governing the conduct of members. Have you met Goje one on one to discuss on how to resolve this crisis? We met him on several occasions, when he was coming to this party we were working with him because we thought he was coming with a clear mind to build the party. We introduced him to our leaders and he told them about our strength and the reasons why he is coming through us to meet them because he knew what we have on ground and the records is there to speak for itself. He knows we are very strong in our constituency. We intended working with him but the moment we agreed he should lead us, that was the moment we started noticing his true colour. He started behaving somehow, when he calls for a meeting, all members of his new PDP will be in attendance and they will take decisions and say it is the decisions of Gombe APC, just like the creation of local government interim management committees and so on. We have tried all our best to resolves the crisis amicably because we don’t want the party to lose in Gombe, we have suffered a lot for the party. We want the party to be strong and vibrant that is why we put all these efforts yet nothing has changed. He thinks he can do it his own ways, he thinks APC Gombe is a one man business. That is why we doubt his sincerity in the party. A lot of people are questioning his presence in APC simply because his ideas are not what can bring positive results anywhere. As we all know, Gombe North is my constituency but all his strength is from our supporters, so people are not supporting Goje, they are supporting APC. Goje should apologize to the people of Gombe State for the wrongs he did to the people. A lot of people from my constituency have one grudge or the other against Goje, so he needs to come and apologise to the people instead of fighting us. If he thinks he is popular he should go to his constituency and justify that not in Gombe. The crisis seems to be between the two of you. Do you put the interest of the party in what you are doing? There is no way anybody will say that Mailantarki is working for PDP in Gombe State. If I am working for PDP, then who is PDP? PDP is Goje, Goje was the PDP governor in Gombe State for good eight years and we all know who he was during his days in office and even during the time I confronted him. I denied him the seat he wanted for his in-law. We contested and I defeated him hands down. I denied him the seat of State House of assembly and all these were my efforts during the CPC days in Gombe. From the look of things, Goje did not come to APC for results, rather he came to fight Mailantarki. What people are saying is that prior to Goje’s joining APC, there was no structure of APC in Gombe… That is a lie. That is a clear effort to tarnish my image. You are all aware I have branded vehicles that were running round in the name of APC. There is an office along BCGA road that was commissioned by me a day after APC was born. There were posters and bill boards everywhere in Gombe State long before Goje joined the party. I was part of the committee that went round all nooks and crannies of the state to talk to our supporters about the merger. If the candidate of the party is decided through consensus. What would be your reaction? We will know that APC is a joke because it is only when APC is a joke that this will happen. If this happens are you going to leave the party? Well, I represent about 450,000 people and I was elected with about 129,000 votes and even at the moment I know they are yearning. I am just trying to calm every one down. We believe with the kind of leadership we have at the national level, justice will be done. We can do anything to prove that we have the APC and it is only with us that results can be achieved. We are calling on the national leadership of the party to consider all the petitions we wrote and to correct all the abnormalities before the congresses are held in Gombe. We are not going to agree with any consensus. The only thing we will agree with is the consensus that will reflect the legacy parties and that is if it is in the guidelines of the party.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 17:55:30 +0000
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