• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Cracks in ACPN as party dumps Ezekwesili, endorses Buhari

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The Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) has in a rather inexplicable twist thrown its support to President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) after in emerged that its presidential candidate, Oby Ezekwesili had withdrawn her ambition to contest the 2019 presidential election and proposed to join a coalition against the APC and the PDP.

However, in a swift reaction, running mate to Ezekwesili,  who is also the National Chairman of the party, AbdulGaniyu Galadima, in his address during a press conference  on Thursday in Abuja said  “The Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) is withdrawing support for her presidential| aspiration and endorsing the second term bid of President Muhammadu Buhari to take Nigeria to the next level.”

Mrs Ezekwesili announced her decision in a statement released by her campaign organization on Thursday stressing that her action was prompted by an examination of the country’s electoral environment sequel to the 2019 presidential debate of Saturday, January 19, 2019.

“This decision followed extensive consultations with leaders from various walks of life across the country over the past few days. I deem it necessary for me to focus on helping to build a veritable coalition to ensure a viable alternative to the #APCPDP in the forthcoming elections,” the statement read.

However Gani Galadima, Paul Isamade; National Secretary; and other officials in their statement during the press conference   through Paul Isamade  accused Ezekwesili  of receiving cash donations of $5000 and N35 million from local donations and other property in the name of the party which they insist she must account for.

The ACPN said in the conference that Ezekwesili’s decision to withdraw her ambition was done without  consulting the party adding that her decision  to help build a coalition to defeat the APC and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) did not go down with the thinking in the party.

“This she does not seeing fit to inform the party whose mandate she is holding,” the party stated.

In addition, the party accused Mrs Ezekwesili of using it as a platform to negotiate to be Nigeria’s finance minister.

“I have been put into confidence by one of her aide named lyinoluwa Aboyeji that she only wanted to use the platform of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) to negotiate to be Nigeria’s finance minister.”

Meanwhile Ezekwesili was not available to speak on the matter but a close source told BusinessDay on condition of anonymity that she had traveled out of the country and will respond in due cause.  The source said further that the Galadima group has been working to undermine the interest of the party and debunked the claims that they were not consulted before the decision to form a coalition was made.

The source also maintained that the decision to form a coalition was made after a three- day intense discussion even as the source suggested that the Galadima group may have been induced to back the ruling party and President Buhari.

“We beseech the respected Oby Ezekwesili to join hands now with PMB,” he wrote on Twitter. “The coalition we need in Nigeria is a coalition against corruption, not a coalition against any political party. PMB is already leading the pack against corruption.”