Towards the end of 2021, the feud between the governor of Gombe State, Inuwa Yahaya and the senator representing Gombe central, Danjuma Goje escalated following a violent clash between suspected supporters of the two leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
The violence occurred when Senator Goje, who is also a former governor of the state, visited Gombe the first time after the 2019 elections. It led to loss of several lives and left many other people with various degrees of injuries.
Since the incident, the party in the state was almost torn apart with members taking sides with their political mentors even as the members of the opposition took the advantage to woo people into their camps.
Worried by the division in the party triggered by the fracas especially as the 2023 elections drew closer, the national headquarters of the APC on December 9, 2022 had a delegation led by Senator Abdullahi Adamu, the current national chairman who stormed the state to reconcile the warring members.
The APC delegation stormed the state at night where they had a meeting with Inuwa but Goje was absent at the meeting.
Adamu who addressed journalists at the government house Gombe at about 11pm after the meeting with the governor and party stakeholders in the state said they were there following a petition they received from Goje against Inuwa adding that the party’s national headquarters was determined to settle the dispute among all its members.
“We are on a mission to reconcile any perceived misunderstanding, grudges, conflict in our great party,” he told journalists.
Adamu added that Goje had petitioned them and they were there in response to it by meeting with Inuwa whom the petition was directed at.
“So, in order to avoid war, we have to prepare for war. Our mission is to see that those areas of conflicts are resolved as quickly as possible,” he noted.
Similarly, the then national chairman of the APC caretaker committee and governor of Yobe state, Mai Mala Buni in collaboration with the national reconciliation committee also on January 5, 2022 met with Governor Inuwa Yahaya and Senator Danjuma Goje at an enlarged meeting held at the residence of Senator Abdullahi Adamu.
It was reported that both Governor Yahaya and Senator Goje were given opportunity to present their respective positions on their misunderstanding and conflict in the APC in Gombe State and a robust discussion was held with a view to unravelling what the problems were and how best to proffer solutions and resolve the differences.
But it seemed there was no truce since after then as the duo of Goje and Inuwa had never worked together during the just concluded 2023 general elections in the state.
It was alleged that during senatorial primaries, Goje also picked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nomination form as option B should his APC denied him the ticket due to his conflict with the state governor. As a matter of fact, his name appeared on the PDP ballots during the primaries.
Although he managed to be the senatorial flag bearer of the APC, Goje never attended any subsequent campaign rallies or tours of the party led by Inuwa which further escalated their rivalry and hostility.
Meanwhile, immediately after the elections, the leadership of the (APC) of Kashere ward of Akko local government area where Goje hails from, announced the expulsion of the senator over allegations of anti-party activities.
The APC ward chairman, Tanimu Abdullahi explained that the party took a unanimous decision to expel Goje after finding him guilty of anti-party activities such as his failure to attend the Gombe State APC rally presided over by the national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu; failure to attend the presidential campaign rally in Gombe State which was attended by the president and vice president-elect.
He added that the senator was also accused of boycotting all campaign tours of the party in his Gombe central senatorial zone, Akko federal constituency, state assembly and ward units.
“The committee also deliberated on the allegations against Goje of hobnobbing with opposition parties and their candidates with the intent to undermine the success of the APC in Gombe State and Nigeria in general.
“Open support to opposition party candidates by hosting the NNPP gubernatorial candidate and the PDP Akko federal house of representatives candidate in his residence and offered support against the interest of his party, the APC among many other instances,” he said.
Tanimu further stated that other offences committed by the senator include “making pronouncements that undermined the APC administration in the state and sponsoring campaign of calumny with the intention of inciting the public against the Inuwa led APC administration in the state.
“Giving clear directives to his associates and proteges to work against the interest of the APC in Gombe State by ensuring only senator Goje is elected on the APC platform (using the Goje Kawai slogan) while working towards the defeat of other APC candidates at all levels.”
In the meantime, both the local governments and state executives of the party have endorsed the decision taken by the ward leadership of expelling the senator.
However, Senator Goje has described his expulsion by the APC as disobedience to court as he obtained an order restraining the party from taking that action against him.
A legislative aide to the embattled senator, Barrister Sa’idu Muazu Kumo, made the remarks while reacting to his principal’s expulsion.
Speaking with journalists. The special assistant to the senator on legal matters said they had filed a suit before a federal high court in Abuja and obtained an order restraining the party from taking that action but that the party defied the order and went ahead with their action against the senator.
He revealed that the court order was served on the party at the ward level on the 16th and 17th of April 2023 before the party announced his expulsion.
“They were told that they should exercise restraints; they should go to court to hear all the complaints of the plaintiff, Senator Muhammad Danjuma Goje at the Federal High Court Abuja but they went ahead to do the purported act.
“So, you cannot do anything that contradicts the power of the courts and think you’d succeed. So, we can’t say anything for now. We are just waiting for the court to hear and determine our application that we filed before the court.
“We served them with the advanced copy of the court order on the 16th and we served them with the real order on the 17th. And they went ahead on the 18th to do that. That contradicts the court order,” he stated.
He urged the supporters of the senator to remain calm until the outcome of the court’s judgement.
LEADERSHIP Weekend reports that the endemic animosity between the state governor and the former governor impacted negatively against the APC particularly at the presidential and national assembly elections as the party lost the presidential election, two senators out of three and five out of six house of representatives seats in the state to the opposition PDP.
Goje’s expulsion from the party may also scuttle his chances to become a principal officer of the 10th senate and if the senator quits the party to another party, it’s a minus to the APC in Gombe State too as he is a heavy weight politician.
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