Some members of the All Progressives Congress, APC at the Bauchi State House Assembly have reportedly forged signatures which they used in issuing a statement that blamed the state governor Bala Mohammed for allegedly coercing them to join the People’s Democratic Party.
Multiple sources at the Assembly who exclusively spoke to WikkiTimes said members of the Assembly who appeared worried over a move by 5 of their colleagues to join the PDP convened a meeting where “the coercion statement was issued.”
A source told WikkiTimes that “they convened a meeting and after drafting their statement where they leveled heavy allegations against the state governor Bala Mohammed, they called the Speaker to sign the statement.
“But the Speaker requested to see the content of the letter and when they forwarded the letter to the Speaker, he read it and categorically told them that he was not going to sign it because the allegations against the governor were not true.
“There was nothing like inducement or coercion and at no point has the Governor ever induce or coerce any of them. “The speaker was unequivocal in telling them that the content of the letter was malicious and a complete misrepresentation of facts”, the source said.
Another source who was familiar with the outcome of the meeting where the members resolved to issue the press statement condemning Governor Mohammed said “many of the members were not in the meeting, but the others who appeared so desperate decided to forge signatures and signed on behalf of others”, he said.
The source said the Speaker of the Assembly Abubakar Y. Suleiman advised the members to “reiterate their loyalty to the party instead of leveling unfounded and concocted allegations against the governor, but they refused and went ahead to issue the statement.”
“Of all the 16 people that signed the press statement, only 9 people were at the meeting, the rest of the signatures were forged on behalf of the remaining members of the APC Caucus.
“Again previous statements such as this were only signed by the majority leader Hon. Tijanni Aliyu, but in order to show the state governor that all of the APC members of the assembly jointly signed this statement, signatures were forged to make the whole thing look real”, a source told WikkiTimes.
WikkiTimes can authoritatively report that five members of the APC caucus in the Assembly have already resolved to join the PDP in the coming weeks, a move that appeared unpalatable to a section of the APC majority caucus in the Assembly.
WikkiTimes understand that the APC members in the Assembly became jittery of the planned defection; “because most of them occupying positions in the Assembly are going to lose their positions, such as the majority leader, chief whip etc.
WikkiTimes recalled that the All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus lawmakers who control the Bauchi ninth Assembly have accused the State Governor, Bala Mohammed of “coercing and inducing them into his party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).”
The lawmakers in the statement alleged that governor Mohammed was planning to truncate the good relationship despite their party differences.
“We hereby reiterate our resolve to remain united in the face of this cowardly provocation and selfish move and ensure our loyal supporters that APC remains our party of choice and we’ll continue to champion the positive interest of the people”, the members said in the statement.
Responding, Hon. Yunusa Warji, a member representing Warji Constituency denied the allegations that signatures of some members were forged.
When our reporter challenged that the signatures were not in conformity with previous documents where the lawmakers appended their signatures on, Warji said; “anybody who is feeding you with that information is telling you the wrong thing, we did not forge signatures”, he insisted.