Crisis rocks Bauchi APM as faction suspends chairman

A leadership crisis has hit the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in Bauchi, with a faction of the party’s executives announcing the suspension of its chairman, Auwal Isah Mai Takalminroba, over alleged constitutional breaches and a loss of confidence in his leadership.

The party’s Secretary, Mohammed Nasir Yahaya, who addressed journalists alongside other executive members on Wednesday, said the decision followed allegations of financial non-accountability, poor record-keeping, operating without an official party bank account, and the unconstitutional handling of party affairs.

The faction also announced the appointment of Hon. Nasiru Nuru Marafa as interim chairman.

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Yahaya said the crisis emerged after Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed and other government officials defected to the APM, alleging that the chairman altered the names of members of the party’s state executive committee to accommodate individuals who were not original members of the party.

According to him, the affected individuals were loyalists of the state government and members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who joined the governor in defecting to the APM.

He said the development prompted complaints and petitions to the party’s state and national leadership.

Yahaya further alleged that the governor’s camp had requested 70 per cent control of the party’s leadership structure, leaving the original APM members with 30 per cent representation.

He said the arrangement led to the formation of a harmonisation committee, which sat for only four days before its activities were suspended indefinitely.

“Actually, what happened is that, after the Governor came to APM, there was a team of harmonisation we made, because when he was about to come, he requested for 70 percent of the APM leader. Yes, we agreed with him. So we formed a committee for harmonisation,” he said.

Yahaya added that the faction was later informed of plans to hold a stakeholders’ meeting, despite its claim that no harmonisation had taken place.

He said the group subsequently wrote to the national leadership of the APM and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), stating that it was unaware of any properly convened meeting.

Yahaya also claimed that, among the 28 members of the party’s state executive committee, only Mai Takalminroba had been actively involved in the APM’s activities in the state since 2018.

He said the faction had formally notified INEC and the party’s national leadership of the chairman’s suspension.

According to Yahaya, the group had also raised its concerns with Governor Mohammed, who reportedly assured them that the disagreement would be resolved amicably.

“He told us that since we are in the APM, he knew we wanted our party to win the general elections. So he doesn’t want the internal problem to go beyond our own control. Since then, we have maintained law and order to calm everything down,” he said.

However, the move has exposed divisions within the party, as the factional Publicity Secretary, AbdulShakur Danlami Mohammed, disputed Yahaya’s claim to the position of party secretary.

Although he did not deny that the aggrieved members belonged to the APM, Mohammed said the party would issue an official position on the matter later.

The development leaves the party’s leadership structure in Bauchi contested, pending an official response from the APM’s national leadership.