Niger APC Reconciles Warring Council Chairmen, Councillors

By Laleye Dipo

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has achieved reconciliation between warring local government council chairmen and their councillors.

The chairmen and the councillors have been at each other’s throats for about two months that the councillors removed the chairmen of the Shiroro and Chanchaga local governments.

THISDAY learnt that the APC hierarchy, which felt embarrassed by the development, summoned all the 25 local government chairmen and their councillors to a meeting last Thursday, which they followed up with another meeting yesterday.

The meetings, which were held at the party’s state secretariat, were presided over by the APC’s State Caretaker Committee Chairman, Mr. Saidu Galkogo.

A competent source at the meeting told THISDAY that the councillors narrated that their anger was directed against the chairmen who suddenly became ‘emperors” and started to spend local government’s funds without recourse to the legislative council.

Some of the councillors told the meeting that they only hear about the flag off of projects or distribution of materials on state radio without anyone carrying them along.

The insider said that the chairmen apologised to their councillors and promised to “turn a new leaf” in the management of their councils’ affairs.

However, THISDAY learnt that the councillors who agreed to bury the hatchets said that they should meet at their respective council levels before rescinding the suspension of their chairmen.

“Until this is done they (chairmen) cannot return to their seats,” one of the councillors reportedly told the meeting.

At the end of the marathon meeting all the elected council officials were directed to go back and work for the unity of the party and avoid actions that would spoil the good image of the party.