Leadership Tussle Rips Bauchi APM Members Apart

A fresh leadership crisis has engulfed the Bauchi State chapter of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) with two factions laying claim to the party’s leadership amid disagreements over the control and composition of its executive structures following Governor Bala Mohammed’s defection to the party.

While the faction led by the former state chairman, Alhaji Auwal Isah Mai Takalmin Roba, insists that he remains the legitimate chairman, the caretaker committee appointed by the party’s national leadership has dismissed the claim, declaring that the former executives have lost their authority.

The caretaker committee also described Auwal Isah as an ordinary member of the party, following the dissolution of the former executive structures from ward to state levels.

Speaking with journalists yesterday at the party’s state secretariat in Bauchi, the caretaker chairman, Alhaji Shehu Adaji, said the former chairman and members of the dissolved State Working Committee no longer possessed the constitutional authority to speak or act on behalf of the party.

Adaji explained that the dissolution followed deliberations by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) which was subsequently ratified by the National Executive Council (NEC).

He said the national leadership, under the chairmanship of Alhaji Yusuf Mamman Dantalle, approved and inaugurated a seven-member caretaker committee on October 27, 2026, to oversee the affairs of the party in Bauchi State.

According to him, the committee was mandated to administer the party, reconcile aggrieved members and harmonise its structures across the state pending the conduct of substantive congresses.

He maintained that the caretaker committee remained the only recognised leadership of the APM in Bauchi State and was discharging its responsibilities in accordance with the party’s constitution.

Earlier, Alhaji Auwal Isah, who addressed journalists separately, insisted that he remained the legitimate state chairman because he had occupied the position long before Governor Mohammed and his associates joined the party.

He said an agreement had earlier been reached to share party leadership positions on a 50-50 basis between the existing members and those who recently joined the party.

According to him, the arrangement has now been undermined by what he described as attempts by the new entrants to take complete control of the party.

“Those who joined the party more recently are now seeking to take 100 per cent control, even though we have existing party leaders at the local governments level who have long served this party. We will not accept this; we remain in our leadership positions,” he said.

Auwal vowed that his faction would pursue their rights, including seeking legal redress if necessary.

The latest disagreement is the culmination of a leadership struggle that became public on October 21, 2026, when a faction of the party’s state executives announced Auwal Isah’s removal over alleged constitutional breaches and loss of confidence in his leadership.

At the time, the party’s secretary, Mohammed Nasir Yahaya, who addressed journalists alongside some executives, accused the former chairman of financial mismanagement, poor record-keeping, failure to operate an official party bank account and unconstitutional handling of party affairs.

Yahaya announced that an emergency meeting of the executives had installed Hon. Nasiru Nuru Marafa as interim chairman of the party in the state.

He alleged that disagreements over the composition and control of the party’s leadership structure intensified following Governor Mohammed’s defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APM.

According to Yahaya, Auwal Isah allegedly altered the names of members of the State Executive Committee and introduced individuals he claimed were not original members of the party but loyalists of the state government and PDP who joined alongside the governor.