The All Progressives Congress (APC) has reiterated that only the National Working Committee (NWC) has the authority to suspend its National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje.
This declaration was made by the party’s National Legal Adviser, Abdulkarim Kana, in an interview with Channels Television’s Politics Today, News About Nigeria reports.
Kana’s statement comes amidst the controversy surrounding Ganduje’s suspension by different factional executives of his ward.
According to Kana, no organ of the party has the right to suspend any member except the NWC. He said that all procedures must be exhausted before such action can be taken.
“All those procedures must be exhausted for such penalties to be imposed, but as a penalty pending completion of an investigation, no organ of the APC has the power to suspend any member pending investigation except the national working committee,” he stated.
Kana dismissed those who suspended Ganduje as “random individuals” who are not members of the ruling party.
He said, “I knew about some random individuals. They are not ward leaders of Ganduje ward and they are not ward leaders of anywhere. That we have established.”
He continued: “That, we have established. And that was why, from the very beginning, when this information became known to us, the first thing we did was investigate and we’ll have a mechanism within the party to confirm when there are such claims.
“It’s a serious claim. That an organ of the party would make such a daring decision. We conducted our investigations and it didn’t take long for us to establish that the purported individuals who were said to have suspended the national chairman are not even members of the board committee of the party in Ganduje ward and are not members of any of the ward excos as we know.
According to Kana, his office went beyond receiving reports and interviewed the ward executives, matching their faces against their ID cards and voters’ cards, and discovered that the individuals who made claims on television were impostors.
He said the party has involved security operatives and agencies to investigate why these individuals made such claims.
He said, “And that was why we did not waste time in bringing in the security operatives and the agencies to carry out investigations as to why those individuals would make such claims. They are imposters.
“That’s exactly what they are. And we also received a specific complaint, which was addressed to the police from the authentic ward excos of the party, and I think the matter is currently before the police for investigations.”
Recall that two factions of the Ganduje ward had suspended Ganduje’s membership, citing alleged corruption and other offenses during his tenure as Kano State governor. However, the State Working Committee of the APC in Kano swiftly nullified the suspension and took disciplinary action against the ward executives.
A Federal High Court in Kano also issued an ex parte order temporarily halting the implementation of the suspension until the case is heard and determined. Additionally, a Kano State High Court judge who initially upheld Ganduje’s suspension later vacated the order.
