A faction of the All Progressives Congress in the Ganduje Ward of the Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area of Kano State on Sunday suspended the party’s National Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje.
This came to the fore on Sunday as stakeholders of the APC in the North-Central, at a press conference in Abuja, demanded that the party chairmanship should be ceded to the zone.
The PUNCH had on Monday reported that the Ganduje Ward Legal Adviser, Haladu Gwanjo, and some party leaders suspended the national chairman.
The ward leaders, who hinged the suspension on a $413,000 bribery case against Ganduje by the Kano State Government, said the decision was taken by nine executive members of the APC ward.
The move was quickly followed up with a Kano State High Court order on Wednesday restraining Ganduje from parading himself as the APC national chairman.
But the ward leaders, during a visit to the national headquarters of the party, dissociated themselves from Ganduje’s suspension, adding that they did not file any suit at the Kano State High Court.
They alleged that the New Nigeria Peoples Party-led government in the state was behind the suspension.
The order of the Kano State High Court was however put on hold when the national chairman secured an injunction of the Federal High Court in Kano presided over by Justice A.M Liman.
The ruling was given after Ganduje filed an exparte motion seeking to enforce his fundamental right to a fair hearing.
But in the early hours of Sunday, another faction of the Ganduje ward, which claimed to be the legitimate executive members, slammed a fresh suspension on the chairman.
Addressing newsmen in Kano, the Secretary of the faction, Ja’afar Ganduje, who spoke on behalf of 11 other executive members, hinged the suspension on alleged anti-party activities by Ganduje.
The factional secretary also claimed the APC national chairman had failed to pay his statutory dues to the party.
He said, “We are the authentic executive members of Ganduje ward and we have passed a vote of no confidence and imposed a new suspension on Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje for a series of reasons.
“First, we have suspended Dr Ganduje’s membership for creating internal conflict among party members at the ward level.
“Another major reason why the authentic executive members resolved to suspend Ganduje is the issue of anti-party activities he generated during the 2023 elections which resulted in the party’s failure in the state.”
Reacting in a statement jointly signed by the Chairman and Secretary of Ganduje ward, Ahmed Ganduje and Usaini Jibrin respectively, the executive members labelled the faction as impostors.
‘New officials impostors’
While reaffirming their existence as the bonafide executive members, they claimed no new election was conducted by the state or national body of the APC to herald a fresh leadership.
They also accused the NNPP-led government of Kano State of arranging another ‘bunch of non-APC members’ to embarrass the national chairman of the APC in the name of suspension.
The statement partly read, “To the best of our knowledge, as executive members of Ganduje ward of the APC, there was no new election of new leadership of our party. We remain the same executive of the ward.
“The sponsored group couldn’t do their homework properly by using a fake or uncertified headed paper on which they drew a list of non-existing party executive members.
“To worsen their situation, the leader of the group who announced the purported suspension is an NNPP member who contested but lost the councillorship election in Ganduje ward.
“We called on the national body of the party and security agencies to facilitate the arrest and persecution of the group for impersonation and attempting to cause disaffection in the party. We implore all our party members to disregard such propaganda aimed at disrupting the party.”
N’Central stakeholders
Meanwhile, some stakeholders of the North Central APC have demanded that the seat of the APC leadership should be returned to their zone.
The aggrieved APC stalwarts told newsmen in Abuja on Sunday that the alleged imposition of Ganduje on the party was insensitive and a clear violation of the zoning process in the party.
The Coordinator of Concerned North-Central APC stakeholders, Muhammad Etsu, argued that it was wrong for the party to replace the immediate past national chairman of the party, Abdullahi Adamu, who is from their region with the Ganduje, a politician of North-West extraction.
Etsu therefore appealed to President Bola Tinubu and the National Executive Committee of the APC to remedy the situation by upholding Ganduje’s suspension while efforts were being made to return the seat to their zone.
He said, “We call on all party leaders and stakeholders to support the North-Central aspiration. This would strengthen the party, unite all interests and pave the way for a formidable APC that will consolidate its position across the board. Significantly, we also call on people of conscience to prevail on the ruling party to obey the order of the High Court of Kano state restraining and prohibiting Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje from presiding over the affairs of APC pending the hearing and determination of the interlocutory injunction.
“This is to avoid sending the wrong signal to Nigerians that the party is anarchic, lawless and deviates from its Constitution. That is why we are calling on the President, and the NEC of our party to immediately swing into action by repositioning the APC and ensuring an inclusive remake of the NWC where the North Central Zone regains the position of the National Chairman of the party which it lost after the resignation of erstwhile Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu.”
An APC chieftain from Adamawa, Sunny Sylvester, also threw his weight behind the agitation of the North-Central stakeholders, saying it was the right thing to do.
Sylvester told our correspondent after the press conference that the fact that zoning is being violated in some major opposition parties does not mean the ruling party can’t be different.
He said, “This position belongs to the North-Central. It was zoned to them and one will expect to retain the seat after Abdullahi Adamu left the party.”
When reminded that the matter might resort to contempt of court since Ganduje has secured an interim court order, calling for status quo on all sides, Sylvester disagreed.
“No, Ganduje secured the injunction from a court of concurrent jurisdiction instead of going to the very court where the first exparte order was given. It was wrong. The court said he should restrain from parading himself as the national chairman. He should comply.
“In other words, what we are saying is ‘give this seat back to the North-Central’ where it belongs. That is the agreement. The zone itself comprises several states. I am not from North-Central. But as a concerned party stakeholder from Adamawa State in the North East, I feel the right thing should be done.
“The same thing happened when Iyorchia Ayu of the PDP was removed, his zone demanded his seat. We all know what follows. But we are saying the APC should do things right. We should not be like them,” he stated.
But the APC Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim, thinks otherwise.
Ibrahim insisted that the people persecuting the national chairman were simply trying to ridicule the law and disrespect the judiciary.
He said, “Where an order is issued by the court for status quo ante to be maintained, you can’t have people doing things in the reverse. It is not just a contempt of court but total disregard to the judiciary and, by extension, to the national anthem of the country. It is now moving away from politics to brigandage.
“I think some people are trying to show that even though they came to power via the pronouncement of the court, they have no respect for the court. Whoever is behind this should be called to order by way of a serious sanction. The law is common sense and sensibly applied. Now common sense should tell you where they say ‘maintain status quo’ until the substance of the matter is heard.
“Even though Dr Abdullahi Ganduje said controversy and politics go hand in hand, he also admitted that there are three underlying factors – reality, morality and legality. As long as reality is not overthrown by morality and legality, everything is going to be alright. The reality on the ground is that he is in total control of the party. He is the national chairman and respectable leader of the APC. Anybody who is not happy with that should go to court and not engage in underground shenanigans that will ridicule him at the end of the day. Ganduje and Oshiomhole’s cases are incomparable. This one is political rascality taken too far.”
The Senior Special Assistant Assistant to the APC National Chairman on Public Enlightenment, Chief Oliver Okpala, also shared his position.
According to him, those fuelling the crisis in the party are obviously in dire need of psychiatric evaluation.
He said, “Their main aim is to be causing distraction and crisis thereby derailing having a return to civilian rule and the practice of democratic process in the country.
“Secondly, under judicial practice, these people are supposed to be committed to prison custody for contempt of court. Remember there is a definite order from a Federal High Court that the status quo should be maintained by all and sundry in favour of Ganduje and the furtherance of his fundamental human rights.
“Now, how can any person or group violate such order in the name of being a faction? As earlier said, these people are violating a subsisting court order.”
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