Jos – Crisis is brewing in the Plateau State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as serving House of Assembly members and key stakeholders threaten to dump the party over what they describe as high-handedness, exclusion, and internal dictatorship tearing the party apart.
Findings by Trill Times News reveal that several APC lawmakers are already in talks with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after enduring months of frustration, marginalization, and humiliation by party leaders who see them as “too friendly” with Governor Caleb Mutfwang’s PDP-led administration.
According to insiders, the lawmakers’ only “crime” was choosing peace and partnership over political war. “They expected us to fight the governor, but we chose progress and stability for Plateau. Now we are being punished for it,” one aggrieved lawmaker told Trill Times News.
At the heart of the raging crisis is an alleged fierce power struggle between former Governor Simon Bako Lalong and APC National Chairman Prof. Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, a battle that insiders say has split the party down the middle.
Lalong’s loyalists accuse Prof Yilwatda of building what they call a “Boys High School Gindiri solidarity network,” allegedly using his old ties with Governor Mutfwang and Sen (AVM) Napoleon Binkap Bali (rtd.), both his seniors at the same institution, to consolidate influence. Lalong’s camp suspects that Yilwatda is more interested in positioning himself and the governor for future political advantage than in protecting Lalong’s own ambitions.
The tension has been worsened by the ousting of Barr. Festus Fuanter, Lalong’s kinsman and former APC Deputy National Secretary, who lost his post after Yilwatda’s emergence as National Chairman. The APC constitution bars two National Working Committee members from the same state, a rule that cost Fuanter his position. Sources allegedly say Fuanter has since refused to adequately recognize Yilwatda’s authority, deepening the bad blood between both camps.
Meanwhile, lawmakers and party stakeholders say they have been sidelined in key decisions, including the alleged plot to impose loyalists as candidates ahead of the next elections. “Only three of us are seen as acceptable by the leadership,” a member confided. “The rest of us are already marked for replacement.”
The crisis has grown so bitter that even internal meetings reportedly end in shouting matches, with one recent gathering nearly degenerating into a physical fight. “The party is in total disarray. It’s no longer about ideology, it’s about survival,” a founding member lamented.
With disillusionment spreading and defections looming, political watchers warn that the Plateau APC may be heading for a total meltdown, one that could hand the ruling PDP an unchallenged advantage ahead of 2027.
