Protesters from All Progressives Congress (APC) North Central zone, yesterday, stormed the national secretariat in Abuja to demand the resignation of the National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje.
The stakeholders hinged their demand for Ganduje’s resignation on his recent purported suspension by a faction of his ward executive and the bribery allegation levelled against him by the Kano State government.
Chanting solidarity songs and waving posters with various inscriptions, the protesters appealed to President Bola Tinubu and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, to consider returning the leadership of the party to their region.
The former governor had recently been slammed with a fresh suspension by a faction of the Ganduje Ward in Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area of Kano, an action the ruling party said was carried out by some impostors allegedly being sponsored by the state government.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, the protesters, under the auspices of Concerned North Central APC Stakeholders, said the continued stay of Ganduje in office was a clear violation of the zoning process in the party.
Leader of the demonstrators, Mohammed Saba, said unlike the 37 APC state chairmen, his people in the North Central have passed a vote of no confidence in the national chairman and equally demanded his immediate resignation.
Saba said the people of North Central felt betrayed when the position of APC national chairman was hijacked from them following the exit of Abdullahi Adamu despite giving Tinubu the third highest votes after North West and South West at the 2023 presidential election.
He said: “We, the North Central APC Concerned Stakeholders, have resolved to unanimously agitate for our right and reclaim our mandate which was handed unto us by the national convention of our party in 2022.
“Various sections of our constitution have established the procedure of replacing an executive member at all levels of the party in the event of death, resignation, incapacitation or expulsion from the party by any executive member.
“It is a fact that the emergence of Ganduje as national chairman was done against the spirit and soul of the APC which is the constitution of great party. This singular act has impacted negatively on us as a people in the North Central. We feel betrayed and spited because we gave President Tinubu, the third highest votes after North West and South West in the country which put us in a better position to enjoy the fruit of our labour.
“We, therefore, demand that Ganduje resign immediately and stop parading himself as the national Chairman of our party; the zoning arrangements made by the national convention in 2022, which zoned the office of the national chairman to the North Central be respected by the NEC and all other organs of the party and that all governors elected on the platform of the APC in the North Central should wake up from their slumber and mobilise their members against this impunity until Ganduje resigns as the national chairman,” he said.
