A fresh protest rocked the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), in Abuja on Thursday, with the protesters demanding the resignation of Abdullahi Ganduje as the party’s national chairman.
The protesters, under the aegis of Concerned North Central APC Stakeholders, submitted that Ganduje’s occupation of the national chairman’s office contradicts the zoning policy of the party.
They therefore called on President Bola Tinubu, and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, to consider returning the leadership of the party to their region.
The leader of the protesters, Mohammed Mahmud Saba, disclosed that the people in the North Central have passed a vote of no confidence on Ganduje as the APC national chairman and want his immediate resignation from office.
The protesters, bearing placards with various inscriptions such as “Ganduje must resign” and “Return the APC chairmanship to North Central,” accused the former Kano State Governor of hijacking the national chairmanship position following the exit of Senator Abdullahi Adamu.
They also alleged unfair treatment by party leaders despite giving the APC and President Tinubu huge votes during the 2023 elections.
Addressing newsmen at the location, Saba 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 great 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 Dr. Umar Ganduje as national chairman was done against the spirit and soul of the APC which is the constitution of our 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 His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed 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 Dr Umar Ganduje resign immediately and stop parading himself as the National Chairman of our great 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 mobilize their members against this impunity until Ganduje resigns as the national chairman.”
