Our call for internal democracy in APC was mischievously misinterpreted – Orlando

By Samuel Luka, Bauchi

A Socio-political group known as New Dawn Organization has stated that the recent press conference they staged to draw the attention of Leaders of the All Progressives Congress to lack of internal democracy within the party was mischievously misinterpreted by some people through a press statement.

A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Governorship aspirant in the 2015 general elections in Bauchi state, Comrade Abdullahi Muhammad Tanko stated this while addressing a press conference at the Double 4 event center in Bauchi on Thursday.

Popularly known as Orlando, Comrade Tanko explained that his group only pointed out some of the grave mistakes it observed within the APC in the state which he feared is capable of threatening the party’s integrity in the eyes of the people, hence the need to address them.

He lamented that the publicity Committee Chairman of the party in Bauchi state, Barr Sa’adu Umar Esq. had in a press release in response to opinion of New Dawn Organization recently, neglected any statement that signifies appreciation and appeal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the
Party Leadership to look into the issues raised in the text of the press conference they held.

“In our statement, we
clearly stated our appreciation to Mr. President for the journey so far in governance of the country, so also in the last paragraph of our text where we sought for the kind intervention of Mr. President, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Federation and the National Leadership of the APC to see to the internal democracy of the party”, he said.

Comrade Orlando further noted, the purpose of such call was to ensure that Free and Fair elections prevails in choosing party leadership from wards to the National level.

“We want a situation where members of the party can freely choose or elect the people they want to lead them in the party”, he said.

He said, although such fair playing ground can not be in the interest of some people, they also used the opportunity to draw the attention of President Tinubu to find a lasting solution to all the gubernatorial candidates of APC that
felt infringed or cheated by anyone so that they can be kept within the fold of the party.

According to him, the intention of New Dawn Organization ensure that enabling atmosphere is created where the leadership of the APC will carry every party member and supporters along in the affairs of the party.

“We finally, made a passionate appeal to Mr. President, His Excellency Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to accept and act on all that we have appealed and pleaded for”, Comrade Orlando noted.

While questioning the reason behind perceiving their observations and clarion calls wrongly, the party Chieftain regretted that his critics deliberately and mischievously decided to hide all the beautiful and respectful appeals and pleas the New Dawn Organization made under the carpet just to tarnish his image.

“They chose not to make the beautiful ideas our group raised known to the gentlemen of
the press and the social media crew as well as the entire public for reasons best known to them”, he said.

The APC Chieftain said, on the issue
of non-payment of the APC election agents during the presidential election, his group is ready to take the critics round in company of journalists to some of the local government Areas in Bauchi State where the genuine agents of APC were not paid their agentship fees.

“Let them give us time so that we can take them round to at least two local government areas in each of the three Geo political zones of the state as a sample”, Orlando pledged.

“Don’t give dog a bad
name in order to hang it. Take note that, this dog can never be hanged in this situation”, he declared.

The Party Chieftain stressed that membership of the New Dawn organisation are not only members of the APC, but are also stakeholders in the party.

He submitted that if the leadership of APC were to be good and smart enough, they should have invited the leaders of the New Dawn organisation for discussions that may lead to proper advise and guidance on whatever problem(s), particularly where they went wrong for a better solution rather than wrongly joining issues with them.