The crisis bedevilling the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue state may have finally come to a head with the emergence of a splinter group in the state. The recent twist that led to the emergence of what is now known in Benue as the new APC (nAPC) was trailed by accusations and counter-accusations among leaders of the party in Benue, chief among them, the Deputy gubernatorial candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (APC) in the 2011 elections in the state, Abubakar Usman (aka Young Alhaji), and the immediate past governor of the state, Senator George Akume.
Confidence crisis
Even though there have been issues raised by other leaders, the main battle has been raging between Usman and Akume. There has been no love lost between Usman and Akume, the supposed APC political leader in the state, for what the former describes as his high-handedness in handling issues affecting the party.
The state Chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) who is also a leading member of the APC in the state, Baba Agan, who gave credence to the allegations raised by Usman also declared that the crisis rocking the party in the state was a function of the decisio
n of Senator Akume to impose unpopular candidates on members of the party.
The recent development within the party is that some of the members in the party have now rejected the leadership of Akume and one of the newest disciples to this group is Agan. The resultant effect is that the development has set members of the APC which is yet to cut its teeth in the state at edge against one another.
Imposition of candidate
Trouble got to its height recently when Senator Akume allegedly imposed one of his close associates, Targema Takema on the party as Chairman of the Harmonization Committee of the APC on members. The action of the senate minority leader had not gone down well with some of leaders of the party, among them Usman, who felt that Takema had never held any position either in the state or at the national level and so, should not be given such a sensitive position to man in the party.
Usman told Daily Independent that he and other le
