The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is currently keeping tabs of political activities of no fewer than four of its governors and some of its chieftains, including members of the National Assembly over their alleged support for the presidential bid of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

Atiku is one of the 77 candidates expected to be on the ballot in the February 16 election against the incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC. The former Vice President was a member of the APC until he defected to the PDP and eventually emerged as the leading opposition party’s presidential flagbearer last month.

According to highly placed sources within the party, the decision to place a political surveillance on some of the party’s leaders is to nip any form of anti-party activities in the bud ahead of the 2019 general elections.

While stating that it’s not as if the party is sniffing or suspecting the leaders, he said some of those being monitored are those with antecedents of anti-party activities before, during and after elections, as well as those aggrieved with the outcome of the various primaries of the party in the country.

According to Saturday Telegraph, among those being watched are two governors from the South who are said to be angry with the party and two others from the North, allegedly working with Atiku.

“I can confirm to you that we are watching four governors; two from the South and two from the North. We learnt that they have been telling their people not to work for the party.

“We cannot trust them totally, that is why they have to be watched. If they are not working for us, we too should not let down our guards”, a source said.

While declining to mention names of the APC leaders on the radar, the second source, according to Saturday Telegraph, noted that the ruling party is well aware of the various games the opposition party is planning to play ahead of the crunch battle.

•Excerpted from Saturday Telegraph report

Update news