The national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have apologised to former Gov. Attahiru Bafarawa of Sokoto State for failing to intimate him of their recent visit to incumbent Gov. Aliyu Wamakko.
A seven-man delegation, led by former Gov. John Oyegun of Edo and Gov. AbdulAziz Yari of Zamfara, visited Sokoto on Sunday to apologise to Bafarawa as well as APC leaders and members in the state.
It would be recalled that the APC national leadership had on Oct. 29 attended the inauguration of the Sokoto State University, Sokoto, without intimating Bafarawa.
Similarly, the party leaders, led by Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, Bisi Akande and Bola Tinubu, had on Nov. 6 visited the state, to woo Wamakko to defect to APC, without informing Bafarawa and APC members in the state.
“The National leadership of the party understands the disaffection caused by their mistakes. Our visit here today is to make peace and offer our regrets that what happened was a mistake of the head, not the body,’’ Oyegun said.
The ex-governor said that the national leadership of the party appreciated the crucial role which Bafarawa played in the formation of APC.
Oyegun also urged the party members in the state to be “gallant and receptive”.
Also speaking, Yari pledged that such mistakes would not be allowed to recur. “Everybody is welcome into APC and the party needs more members to fight the battle ahead in 2015, successfully,’’ he said.
Responding, Bafarawa said: “We have accepted the apology of the national leadership of the party. We have to behave like democrats and nothing is impossible in politics,” he added.
He, however, said that the APC members in the state should be allowed to “solve our local problems locally’’.
Bafarawa stressed that the APC in the state was not stopping anybody from joining the party.
“Doing otherwise is unconstitutional and Gov. Wamakko is welcome. There is nothing that is impossible. However, nobody should externally interfere with our local problems and the rules of the game must be followed duly,” he added.
