EXPLAINED! Why Ganduje Can’t Be Removed As Party Chairman Like Oshiomhole -APC
The National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Felix Morka, has said it would be wrong for anybody to liken the current travail of their National Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, to the political intrigues that led to the removal of the Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC) from the party secretariat.
Morka stated this while responding to questions surrounding Ganduje’s suspension on Arise TV on Thursday. Oshiomhole, a former National Chairman of the party, and members of the then NWC were elected into office for four years (2018-2022) at a national convention in Abuja.
But the leadership of the party was dissolved two years into their tenure, an action that a former acting chairman of the APC, Ntufam Eta, claimed was taken to derail the presidential ambition of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu (now president).
A Federal High Court in Abuja had in March 2020 asked Oshiomhole to step aside following an application of interlocutory injunction seeking his removal as APC national chairman.
Justice Danlami Senchi had stated that Oshiomhole should remain suspended pending the determination. of the suit.
Senchi also noted that it was wrong of the ruling party to have kept Oshiomhole as chairman after he was suspended by his state APC chapter in November 2019.
Reacting to the apprehension that Ganduje may be heading in the same
direction, Morka maintained that the
situations were different.
Morka explained that unlike what
happened in Oshiomhole’s case, those
pushing for Ganduje’s suspension
were not recognised members of the
party.
He said, “No, it is not familiar if you understand the facts of what happened to Oshiomhole. They are incomparable. They are two different things altogether. In the case of Oshiomhole when he was the national chairman, the individuals who were involved in that effort to suspend him and take all the actions within the party were officials of the party.
“I know no one could have come out at that time to say these individuals. are not legitimate officers of the party. So whether they were persuaded to do that or compromised, whether they were acting on their free will and volition is a different conversation. And I am not going to speak to that.
But they were members of the party.
“In this particular case in Kano, we’re
seeing people that we know are not
officials of the party. The man who
purportedly read the suspension was
physically at the party secretary on
Wednesday to say he did not participate nor authorise any lawyer to go to court to bring this action against the national chairman. So when the person that is fully disclosed by identity is the same individual saying he did not, then who the heck was the individual who went to court? That is the question..
