Crisis of confidence is now rocking chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State, as N40 million naira mobilisation fund allegedly given by one of the presidential aspirants of the party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, was said to have been diverted by a clique within the party.
According to a dependable source, few APC leaders loyal to Isah Jubrin Echocho had visited Atiku in Abuja last Friday to inform him they were ready to deliver Kogi State to him in the next presidential election, if he agreed to give them money to mobilise and sensitise the people.
The delegation, led by a serving House of Assembly member, who was a former speaker, was said to have impressed on Atiku to henceforth continue to deal with it as its members are now the emerging APC political leaders in the state.
The source said they capitalised on the leadership tussle between, former governor Abubakar Audu and James Ocholi to latch at the duo, which they claimed had turned the party into shreds in the state.
According to the source, the delegation, which met a former speaker who recently decamped from PDP to APC with Atiku as at the time of their visit, told him it had spent several millions of naira to reposition APC in the state, in a bid to make Atiku realise his presidential ambition.
Satisfied with their claims, Atiku was said to have thanked the delegation and handed over N40 million to the leader of the delegation for them to go and do more mobilisation for him in the 21 local government areas in the state
However, hardly had they left Atiku’s house that the leader of the delegation started playing pranks on the real amount that was given to them for the mobilization.
This, it was gathered, led to a heated argument, which later filtered to other Echocho’ s supporters, who now felt the new group, who are new comers in the party, wanted to short change those of them that are ‘landlords’.
The situation, it was gathered, almost degenerated into physical fighting in one of the houses of APC leaders in the state capital on Sunday, which led to the sudden shifting of the ceremony for the decamping of some PDP members to APC on Monday to yesterday.
It was learnt that it was the quick intervention of Governor Rabiu Kwakwanso of Kano, also a presidential aspirant, that saved the outright cancellation of the programme, as some prominent aggrieved members had planned to boycott the ceremony.
According to the source, Kwakanso had to part with a handsome sum to placate the aggrieved members before they allowed reason to prevail.
It was also gathered that Echocho, a big fish who was supposed to decamp to APC yesterday, tactically withdrew, as he was said to have pleaded with Governor Idris Wada to allow him contest for the PDP senatorial seat in the eastern flank of the state.
