Lukman disclosed that stakeholders and party leaders of the North West-had met to review and take a decision to douse the rising tension at the zonal level.
The APC vice chair made the clarification after a meeting of the North-West APC leaders on Thursday night at Katsina Governor’s Lodge in Abuja.
At least 15 chieftains of the All Progressives Congress in Kaduna State have dumped the party, citing lack of internal democracy.
One of the defectors had told our correspondent that 500 additional members would join them over unresolved matters at the state party level.
Those who dumped the ruling party on Thursday included Mallam Audu Bode, Shuabu Ahmed, Habila Latu, Boniface Ubandoma, Mr. Yakubu Simon, Jashua Peter, Camio Bitrus and Patrick Paul (Pato).
Others were Samuel Wyah, Zaka Makoshi, Jonathan Fedelix, Barnabas Samuel (Barry), Shua’ibu Yusuf, Alexander Danladi (Lulu), Samuel Ibrahim.
The APC Legal Adviser in Jema’a Local Government Area, Ibrahim Samuel, in a letter addressed to his Ward Chairman, said, “His decision to dump the party was based on the internal crises of the party, lack of internal democracy and total disrespect.”
Another statement jointly signed by Barnabas Samuel and Ibrahim Samuel (Oganto) lamented that the names that emanated during the last party congress were entirely different from the ones brought to be used for the primaries.
In Kebbi, hundreds of APC members also dumped the party for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party on Thursday in the Argungu local government area of the state.
The horde of aggrieved party supporters who defected were led by Mansur Yargyra, a former House of Reps hopeful in the ruling APC.
According to Yargyra, he left the party over the act of injustice meted to many members of the party by certain selfish elements who did not have the love of the party at heart.
Rising from the meeting of North-West leaders on Thursday night, Lukman announced that they had resolved to set up state level committees to address the alleged imposition of candidates and other abuse of privileges with a view to reconciling all aggrieved members.
According to him, politics is all about contest, adding that it is normal to have disagreement during negotiation among party members.
Although the North-West APC chair disclosed that he was yet to have all the details of what led to the gale of defections, he was optimistic the recent facts-finding tour being conducted would address the grey areas next week.
He said, “We should not be seen or appear as passing judgment that nothing can happen. First, politics is all about contest. Disagreement is part of politics. You can’t have political contest without disagreement. As a party, what we are trying to do is to ensure the business of reconciliation is permanent.
“I don’t know the details but we will go back and look at it. Kaduna and Katsina are the only outstanding states that we are yet to visit in the ongoing facts-finding tour we are conducting. And we have agreed that we will visit them early next week. This can be one of the issues we will look at to find out what really transpired and what steps we need to take.
“We met today (Thursday night) to review the situation in the party at the zonal level. The main issue is to really step forward the business of reconciling aggrieved members in each state. What we agreed to do, moving forward, is to have state level committees that will meet with all party leaders and aggrieved party members with a view to reconcile all stakeholders. That will be done before the commencement of the campaign for 2023 general election.”
