Adamawa APC crisis deepens as Gov Bindow removes chairman, instals loyalist

The removal of the acting chairman of Adamawa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Shuaibu Yamusa, and imposition of Mr. Ezra Dimas, a loyalist of Governor Muhammadu Jibrilla Bindow, as his successor, is causing tension in the North-East State.
Freedom Online learned that the 2019 governorship ticket of the party is the cause of the crisis and removal of Yamusa.
A source at the party secretariat in Yola revealed that even when he is yet to spend one year in office, Bindow “is already telling our members that he is interested in re-election in 2019 and he believes Yamusa is loyal to the three senators of the party who are against Bindow’s re-election. That was why the governor moved against Yamusa and replaced him with Dimas, his loyalist and stooge”.
Last week, the three senators paid a solidarity visit to Yamusa and Bindow was said to have called him and expressed his anger that Yamusa was not loyal to him “as the governor of the state and leader of our party”.
The governor also accused Yamusa of hobnobbing with his political enemies, an accusation the former acting chairman denied.
A few days later, the governor told other members of the state exco of the party to pass a vote of no confidence on Yamusa.
Immediately, he was removed and Dimas was chosen to replace him.
The source said: “With this, Bindow believes he has successfully shut out his detractors, led by the three senators and other Abuja-based politicians, from wresting the ticket from him in 2019 but he is making a big mistake. When the time comes, we know what to do”.
Indication that the crisis is yet to abate was given a few days ago when Senator Ahmed Abubakar Mu’Allahyidi (Adamawa South Senatorial District) convened an emergency meeting of party leaders.
At the meeting, the elders resolved that Yamusa’s removal “is unconstitutional and, therefore, remains null and void”.
They declared that it was illegal for the Principal Personal Assistant to Bindow, Abdullahi Bakare, to summon a meeting where Yamusa was removed.
Therefore, they called on the national chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, to call the governor to order if peace is going to reign in the state.
Mu’Allahyidi said: “We were surprised when we learnt that the Principal Personal Assistant to Governor Bindow summoned an APC state exco meeting where the party acting chairman was purportedly removed. Who is Bakare to summon such a meeting? This is not in our constitution”.
But a member of the party, Alhaji Uba Dan Arewa, traced the crisis to the fact that most APC members in the state defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) “and their interests are beginning to show clearly”.
The crisis in the party also manifested in Mubi a few days ago during an empowerment programme organised by Senator Binta Masi Garba.
Senator Garba is one of the senators opposed to Bindow.
A chieftain of the party in the area who is loyal to Bindow mobilised some youths to disrupt the programme.
The party is now divided into two factions: ‘Abuja politicians’ led by federal lawmakers and ‘Home-based politicians’ led by Bindow.