The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) has denied reports that Senator George Akume is contemplating contesting to be National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The immediate past holder of that party position, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje resigned last 27 June, citing health reasons. The Deputy National Chairman (North), Alhaji Ali Bukar Dalori immediately assumed the office in acting position.
The party is likely to elect a substantive National Chairman during its National Executive Committee (NEC) on 25 July with the North Central zone being considered to fill the vacancy since Ganduje (from the Northwest) replaced a party leader from that zone — Senator Adamu Abdullahi — in July 2023. Akume is from Benue State, one of the six states in the North Central zone.
According to a newspaper, top contenders for the position included Akume; former Nasarawa State Governor, Senator Umar Tanko Al-Makura; his former Plateau State counterpart, Senator Joshua Dariye; and former Kogi State Governor Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
But in his first statement as Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. Mr. Yomi Odunga described the report as ‘nothing but a fabrication meant to distract the SGF from the key responsibilities that have been placed on him by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR)’.
The statement further read: ‘For the record, Senator Akume is not jostling with anyone for the post of either the APC National Chairman or any other post in the party. His main focus, he insists, is to ensure that he does not in any way betray the intrinsic trust that President Tinubu reposes in him in ensuring that the Renewed Hope Agenda of the ruling party and the government is achieved within the targeted time frame.
‘While Senator Akume believes that there are qualified candidates in the North-Central to vie for the National Chairmanship position should the party decide to zone the position to the North-Central geopolitical zone, he is of the opinion that what is paramount to him is to help in fasttracking national development in line with the government’s Renewed Hope Agenda instead of getting entangled in the politics of who becomes the National Chairman of the party’.
According to Odunuga, Akume said about the publication: ‘I am not in a hurry to abdicate my responsibility and the task that the President of the Federal Republic has placed before me. I am a firm believer in the principle that whatever God plans for you will surely come to pass. So I can’t be in a race that I am not interested in.
‘Everything that I have been in life has been given to me by the Almighty God through the instrumentality of people including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. To say that I am one of the prominent politicians gunning for the position of the APC Chairman is completely false because I am in the process of ensuring that the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President and the government is realised so that Nigerians can enjoy the true dividends of democracy that they crave for. We are working day and night to deliver on these promises under the supervision of the President and we are totally committed to this’.
Odunga said that ‘the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation would appreciate, in the principle of fairness, that professionalism and the ethics of journalism should be taken seriously in reportage especially in writing stories that are as sensitive as this which are capable of heating the polity.
‘The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation is open to be contacted for verification of facts and it will be appreciated if media practitioners will avail themselves of this opportunity at every given time’.
