Federal Appointments: Delta APC Group Cautions President Buhari Against Empowering PDP Enablers

The All Progressives Congress, APC Youth Leaders and Stakeholders Forum in Delta State has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to reward only true party members from the Niger Delta region who are committed in sustaining APC Mandate and assist in fostering his Next Level agenda for Nigeria.

The group in an open letter to President Buhari, regretted the appointments of non-committed APC members in the past term into several federal positions which it linked to a clandestine move to weaken the influence of the party in the region.

The letter co-signed by, Comrade Timi Coleman FHNR, Yabrade Moses, Hon. Denyefa Akebofa, Hon. Francis Garry, Hon. Famous Believe and Oluku Ebiowoukabowei, sternly condemned the act of favouring PDP loyalists over APC stalwarts in the region especially in the Ijaw axis and prayed Mr. President to reward Delta APC Ijaw faithfuls as new federal appointments are set to commence.

The body of the document as obtained by ASABA METRO reads below.

ATTENTION! THE SILIENT QUEST OF PDP ELEMENTS IN HIJACKING THE STRUCTURES OF THIS GOVERNMENT AND THE NEED TO EXERCISE CAUTION.

First and foremost, we want to use this medium to congratulate Mr. President once again on his successful re-election and successful inauguration to serve another four years in re-building and strengthening the structures of this country as against the years eating up by corruption. We are indeed proud to be part and parcel of this government.

Sir recall in 2015, out of your magnanimity in victory, open heartedness and simplicity, belonging to everybody and nobody, some members of the major opposition party were appointed into sensitive offices, some of which turned out to be saboteurs clogging the wheel of progress in your administration. Some of them even went further to fight your re-election bid and sponsored persons and structures to scuttle your quest for second tenure; this some did openly while some were very careful and discreet about their quest, but here in the Niger-Delta “nothing is hidden under the sun”, we are very much aware of what transpired, since we were at the fore front of the election battle and saw first hand the whelms and caprices of “enemies within”.

Sir, in the last administration, some errors were also observed by us, where APC lead Federal Government empowerment programmes especially in the Niger Delta, where being coordinated by PDP structures to benefit only their core supporters and still go ahead to take glory for such programmes. The core APC supporters were completely stranded and shoved aside, they were neglected by the State structures and also marginalized from relieving what is due them, because PDP structures were used to implement APC programmes. However despite this disadvantages the APC members in the Niger Delta, especially Delta State still put themselves together to garner over 35% votes for Mr. President’s election.

Sir, right now, we are observing that what played out in 2015 is about to repeat itself in this current dispensation where core PDP loyalist who physically and verbally attacked us in the just concluded 2019 elections are currently being fronted by some APC stalwarts in the Niger Delta for appointments into sensitive offices in this administration; if this agenda succeeds, it simply means, the government we sacrificed our lives for, deliberately handed us over to our enemies to be killed!

Sir, we are very surprised that people that swore that you will never see victory in 2019 and put their monies and resources to ensure you were never re-elected as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, are now parading themselves as friends of the government and are currently being aided, supported and nominated by some APC stalwarts in the Niger Delta to man sensitive offices so as to use APC Federal Government resources to strengthen PDP structures and completely destroy and annihilate APC structures and members in the Niger Delta.

Sir, we know you have a listening ear and may not be completely aware of the politics in the Niger Delta, hence the reason we are writing this letter to you. We the core APC members in the Niger Delta, Delta State in particular suffered untold hardship in your last dispensation as people who called us all sorts of names such as “Boko Haram”, “Betrayals” “Sell out” etc, became chief beneficiaries of the APC led administration from 2015-2019. Again this ugly trend is about repeating itself where people who fought against your re-election bid called us all sorts of unprintable names such as “killer herds men”, baba goslow” children” etc are now parading themselves as friends of the government and seeking appointments into sensitive offices; this should not be allowed to happen the second time.

We are pleading that the core offices created in the Niger Delta to sustain peace should be manned by core APC sons and daughters from the Niger Delta. Offices such as NDDC, NIMASA, MND, PAP etc; should be manned by faithful members of our party working in tandem with the visions of Mr. President to sustain peace in the Niger Delta.

Again we appeal to Mr. President and the Vice President to consider the interest of APC faithfuls in as much as the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians is first, let it be known that Delta Ijaw APC faithfuls are equally Nigerians and shouldn’t suffer marginalization, neglect and worse treatment from our own APC led Federal Government we fought and bleed for; hence the anomalies should be corrected in this dispensation. Below are our prayers:

1. In considering appointments into sensitive parastatals in the Niger Delta Such as NDDC, MND, PAP, NIMASA etc, core and qualified Party (APC) members in the Niger Delta and the State concerned should have the right of first refusal, they should be first considered before others. And thorough internal party screening, security screening investigations, and background check should be carried out on them from their unit to Ward, to LGA and State level.
2. They should be thoroughly screened by the DSS and EFCC 
3. The social investment programmes and other federal government empowerment programmes should be anchored by APC stalwarts in States that do not have APC State governors; so as to avoid the opposition hijacking the processes to the detriment of APC faithful and still condemn the APC led government while collecting glories from her (APC) policies and programmes.
4. State visits and functions to be carried out by the presidency or vice president should be anchored by APC stalwarts who will work with the respective state governors and also carry the APC faithful from that domain along so as to have a sense of belonging where party faithful are not carried along, they will become strangers in their own house. This should be immediately implement by the Vice President on his scheduled visit to Delta State this month of July, particularly to Gbaramatu Kingdom, the party faithfuls in Gbaramatu Kingdom and environs should be carried along to create a sense of belonging and further strengthen the party in the area in particular and the State in general. 
5. It’s also a known fact that no single Delta State Ijaw was appointed in your erstwhile tenure. We earnestly pray you correct the anomaly by appointing Delta State Ijaw man to handle the duo offices of NDDC chairman and PAP. 
6. And finally appointments, policies and programmes to be implemented in the Niger Delta, should be carried out in consultation with the party faithful at all levels concerned so as to ensure the effectiveness of such programmes, because saboteurs will be easily identified and blocked from assessing such events from the local level, this will bring about successes and smooth running of this administration policies in the Niger Delta.

We are very sure Mr. President will consider the recommendations made in this letter and ensure the right thing is done.