APC CALCULATION ALTERED BY ATIKU

Findings by Sunday Newswatch have revealed that the recent defection of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) may have completely changed the scheme of things within the opposition mega party.
Sources, who confided in our correspondents, said that the former presidential candidate of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) – one of the constituent parties of the APC, General Muhammadu Buhari, initially had an agreement with APC chieftains on the presidential ticket before Atiku joined the train.
One of the sources noted, however, that the condition Atiku gave APC chieftains before defecting to the party may now be restraining them from giving Buhari, or any of his nominees, an automatic presidential ticket.
“Immediately Atiku came on board, he changed the calculations. And there are fears that he might pick the big slot, because the man has a deep pocket. He told them before joining the party that there must be primaries, in which everybody would be given a level-playing ground.
“They foolishly agreed because they were desperate to have him in APC. Now, they must conduct primaries, and we know that, if that happens, Atiku will win. Buhari has no money to dole out to delegates, and elections are all about money; we are in a fix now.
“We just hope that Buhari won’t leave the APC, because that will spell doom for the party. Some of his people are mounting pressure on him to quit, because they know he won’t get the ticket. Atiku has changed the whole game plan,” he said.
Other sources equally insisted that members of the defunct CPC were insisting that the retired General should quit the APC, if there was no assurance that he would pick the presidential ticket of the latter.
However, contrary to prevailing speculations that Buhari and his supporters in the APC were set to dump the party, following Atiku’s entry, sources close to the former Head of State have maintained that he would remain in the party, for now, and that he had not indicated any interest to dump the APC.
Yet other Sunday Newswatch sources pointed out that the presence of the retired General Buhari in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, last week during the Progressive Governors’ Forum, was a confirmation that he had not bowed to pressures from within his caucus to quit the APC.
However, those who believed there is formidable pressure on Buhari to quit, insisted that the various meetings of party leaders at different locations in recent times were to persuade Buhari to remain in the party.
Buhari was sighted in Ibadan last week, where he was full of life and conviviality, as he discussed at length, on how the APC would ensure the desired change in the country, particularly, in the area of unemployment.
Speaking exclusively with Sunday Newswatch, a former governorship candidate of the defunct CPC in Ogun State, Alhaji  Abdulraheem Adebayo Shittu,  assured it was only a rumour that Buhari was planning to quit, stressing that if such pressure was being mounted, he (Shittu) would  not be out of the arrangement.
Shittu said if Buhari was planning to yield to such pressure, he would not have been in Ibadan during the Progressive Governors’ Forum meeting that took place last week.
He said: “It is not in the interest of Nigeria that Buhari should leave APC, which he co-founded. His home is APC, and he cannot go elsewhere. I can categorically tell you that the rumour has no basis.”
In another twist, the Adamawa State chapter of the APC appears to be engulfed in a crisis of defections, thereby necessitating moves by the party leaders in the state to stem the gale. While some party faithful are still basking in the euphoria of Atiku’s defection to the party, others are now worried by the mass exit of defectors, which has hit the state chapter of the party in recent times.
Apparently worried by the loss of its members to the rival PDP, leaders of the party in the state are making moves to persuade aggrieved members from defecting to other parties.
Stakeholders, such as former Atiku, Governor Murtala Nyako, Brigadier Buba Marwa, Boss Mustapha and a host others,  are billed to hold  an emergency meeting on Wednesday at the Government House, Yola. The purpose of the meeting is to salvage the party from the internal wrangling, currently bedevilling it.
The party recently held a widely-publicised rally in Yola, the state capital, to formally receive former Atiku. But no sooner had the rally been concluded than the party started losing members to PDP.
Those who defected to the PDP were led by CPC governorship candidate in the 2011 general elections, Markus Gundiri. The party also lost M.C. Tahiru, a member of the House of Representatives from Yola North/South and Gerei Federal Constituency. He was said to have tendered his letter of resignation, recently.
Interim Treasurer, Alhaji Adamu Kamale, confirmed that the leaders of the party would meet during the week to chart a way forward. He admitted that there wwere cracks in the party, as the Interim State Executive of the APC was “working at cross purposes, which resulted in serious crisis in the state chapter of the party.”
He expressed the belief that nothing good would come out of the party under the leadership of Hon. Kobis Aris as the interim state chairman.
According to him, Kobis handled the affairs of the party as if it was a personal estate. He said the party chairman lacked the required charisma to move the party forward, and pointed out that the recent crisis in the party led to movement of the key players to PDP, which he claimed was as a result of the fall-out of the recent membership registration exercise carried out by the party in the North East.
He said the Interim Committee Chairman, Aris, sidelined most of the party faithful so much that political thugs were sponsored to threaten the Interim Secretary of the party, Amb. Fati Bala, who was harassed by Nyako’s Commissioner for Local Government, with a mission to concede the party’s structure to Nyako, illegally. He stressed that many stakeholders of the party were denied registration during the membership exercise.
One of the party chieftains, who did not want his name in print, said that the latest crisis actually started during the recent rally held by the party in the state, adding that, “The state government was to help provide 50 buses to bring party supporters from the 21 local government areas to the rally venue.
“But Nyako’s loyalists from the new PDP prevented members of the legacy parties from entering the buses, which was the reason Engr. Markus Gundiri protested and did not participate in the rally. It was because of the humiliation they meted to his supporters.”