National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has said he was not bothered by the threat by a former National Vice Chairman of the North West, Salihu Lukman, to institute a Court action to demand the convening of meetings of two statutory organs of the ruling party, the National Caucus and the National Executive Committee (NEC)
The former Kano state governor also dismissed those agitating for the return of the office of the National Chairman that he occupies to the North Central as inconsequential.
Ganduje spoke at the weekend through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Enlightenment, Chief Oliver Okpala.
Lukman, in a letter addressed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last week, accused Ganduje of sidelining the two statutory organs of the party and warned that he would institute a court action in the next few days if the APC national chairman failed to call for meetings of the National Caucus and NEC.
The letter reads in part: “I am compelled to kindly draw Your Excellency’s attention that, as it is, our party is operating almost blindly without recourse to provisions of the APC Constitution. Meetings of organs as specified by relevant provisions of the APC Constitution are not taking place.
“Decisions, which established organs of the party are expected to take, are being taken by individual leaders outside those organs.
“One of the critical organs, the Board of Trustees, which is renamed the National Advisory Council, has not been inaugurated since the formation of the APC in July 2013.
“With such reality, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party has appropriated the powers of all organs, and in its name, the National Chairman is taking discretionary decisions.
“I want to kindly demand that every necessary initiative be started between now, May 21, 2024, and June 7, 2024, to activate all organs of the APC in line with the existing provisions of the party’s constitution.
“Failure to do that will compel me, as a patriotic Nigerian and loyal party member who has paid his dues, to seek legal redress. Democracy is meaningless without functional political parties.”
But Okpala declared that Lukman has no support base in the party to threaten the Ganduje-led National Working Committee with court action.
“A similar issue that should be brought into focus is that of a former National Vice Chairman of the party who had resigned his position in the party and he is now threatening to take the APC to court if Ganduje is not removed.
“And one wonders under which platform or locus he wants to prosecute his case. This is someone who, on a daily basis, abuses the government of the day and his supposed party on national papers, discrediting the leaders, and he still wants the leaders to listen to him.
“One wonders what he forgot in the party that he wants Ganduje and the party leaders to pay him for.
“People should please allow the party and the leadership under Ganduje to breathe since they are doing well and winning over political heavyweights from other parties because of their performance.
“Ganduje, from all indications, means well for the party, and he is working tirelessly to ensure the APC occupies an Olympic position in the country’s orbit of partisan politics. He will not be distracted.”
The media adviser also alleged that those demanding his principal removal under the guise of APC North Central Stakeholders are agents of the New Nigerian People’s Party.
“Those also clamouring for Ganduje’s removal and claiming to be representing the North Central are agents of the NNPP mobilised and induced financially to execute their plan to undermine the name, honour, and integrity of Dr Ganduje.
“When the real leaders and stakeholders of the North Central, led by a former President of the Senate, paid a solidarity visit to the party headquarters and asked Ganduje to continue in office, most of these political mercantile agents were not seen because they were inconsequential in the political equation of North Central politics.
“The leaders said though the slot was zoned to them, they asked Ganduje to continue in office because of the excellent ways he was piloting the affairs of the party.
“When that took place in broad daylight, nothing was heard from these political Lilliputians, so nobody should be left in doubt that their actions are in justification of the money they were given to prosecute the ‘Ganduje must-go agenda.”
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