A gang of All Progressives Congress (APC) members from North Central have seized the party’s national secretariat, asking the National Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Ganduje, to resign from office.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday in Abuja, the demonstrators said that their demands came about as a result of his recent suspension by a few of his ward executives and the Kano State government’s purported bribery charge against him.
The protesters appealed to President Bola Tinubu and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, to take into consideration giving the North Central region of the party’s leadership back.
While doing this, they chanted songs of solidarity and held banners with inscriptions like “Ganduje must resign” and “Return the APC chairmanship to North Central.”
However, the demonstrators bemoaned that Ganduje’s prolonged tenure in power was a blatant disregard for APC zoning principle.
The Concerned North Central APC Stakeholders, in contrast to the 37 APC state chairmen, Mohammed Mahmud Saba, the leader of the demonstrators, said that his people in the North Central have voted against the National Chairman and, hence, called for his immediate resignation.
Saba reiterated that the people of North Central felt betrayed when the position of APC national chairmanship was hijacked from them following the exit of Senator Abdullahi Adamu, despite giving Tinubu the third highest votes after North West and South West at the 2023 presidential election.
“We, the Concerned Stakeholders of the North Central APC, have decided to unite and fight for our rights and our mandate, which was granted to us by our great Party’s National Convention in 2022,” he declared.
In his statement, he made them realise the process for replacing an executive member at all levels of the party in the case of their demise, resignation, incapacitation, or expulsion from the party is outlined in several sections of the party’s constitution.
“It is a known fact that the APC’s constitution, which is its spirit and soul, was violated when Dr Umar Ganduje became its national chairman. We in the North Central have suffered greatly as a people as a result of this one deed.
“We are angry and feel deceived because we voted for His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, third in the nation, behind only the North and South West, putting us in a better position to reap the rewards of our labour.
“Therefore, we demand that Dr Umar Ganduje immediately step down and cease presenting himself as the National Chairman of our great party; that the NEC respect the 2022 National Convention’s zoning arrangements, which assigned the office of National Chairman to the North Central; and that all other organs of the party be respected; and that all governors elected under the APC platform in the North Central should awaken from their sleep and organize their members against this impunity until Ganduje steps down as the National Chairman.”
