Jettisoning Gombe APC reconciliation fueling defections – Goje

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Marine Transport, Senator Mohammed Danjuma Goje, has decried the jettisoning of the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s reconciliation efforts in Gombe State, saying it is fueling resignations and defections from the party.

The Chairman of the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Mai Mala Buni, had on January 5, intervened in the feud between Goje and the Governor of Gombe State, Inuwa Yahaya. 

Daily Trust reports that top shots of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), including Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike had last week visited Goje, where they reportedly wooed him to return to their party. 

Afenifere to NASS: Treat women equally, fairly in constitutional amendment

Abiola’s daughter picks form for APC youth leader

Also at the meeting were the immediate past governor of Gombe State, Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, Senate Deputy Minority Leader, Sen. Philip Aduda and a former Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, among others.

The meeting, our correspondent reported, gave birth to the speculation that Goje is mulling a return to the PDP. Goje was one of the chieftains of the PDP that left to join the formation of the APC. 

But yesterday, in a statement by his media office signed by Ahmed Isa, tagged ‘Gombe reconciliation jettisoned, threatens APC in 2023’, the former governor lamented that the reconciliation moves of the party in Gombe have been jettisoned.

He recalled that the National Reconciliation Committee of the party chaired by Senator Abdullahi Adamu had on the order of Governor Buni hosted him and governor Inuwa at a meeting on January 5, 2022. 

He said at the meeting held at the residence of Senator Adamu in Abuja, it was unanimously agreed that the warring camps should bury their differences and that the congresses conducted at the ward, local government and state levels would be looked into with a view to addressing the lopsidedness in the exercise. 

He said the peace meeting was attended by Buni, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, Senator Kashim Shettima, former governors and senators.

“The Media Office of Senator Goje expresses shock that over three months after the meeting, no further moves to advance the peace efforts, contrary to the resolutions reached during the peace parley. 

“As loyal and peace-loving party stalwarts of the party that contributed immensely to laying the foundation, building it, and leading it to victory in 2019, we want to state that jettisoning of the idea initiated to cement the cracks in the party will lead APC to nowhere but defeat come 2023,” the statement reads in part.

Responding, the spokesman of Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, Ismaila Uba Misilli, said the state APC believed that the duo was reconciled. 

He said it would amount to treachery on the part of Goje to say the reconciliation was abandoned. 

“We at Gombe APC are happy that the two were reconciled, but we are disappointed to hear such thing from Goje’s camp,” he said.