The national leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has declared that there is no vacancy in the office of the party’s national chairman, hence anyone aspiring for it was only stirring a hornet’s nest.
The APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, made the declaration while reacting to the campaign posters of the immediate-past governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, which indicated he was contesting for the party’s national chairmanship position.
LEADERSHIP reports that Bello’s posters surfaced in Abuja on Monday in some locations, including the national secretariat of the APC with the inscription, “APC Next Level. Alhaji Yahaya Bello as APC National Chairman. Leading the Change, Building a Stronger APC.”
But, briefing journalists at end of the 141st meeting of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) in Abuja on Tuesday, Morka said: “There is no vacancy in the office of the national chairman of the party. Our National Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, is our chairman and he is operating as the chairman.
“So, there is no vacancy in that office. And yes, we have also seen some of those posters. This is democracy. People do what they want. But the office of the National chairman is properly and fully occupied.
“We have absolute and total confidence in his leadership of the party. Nobody is asking for that office to be declared vacant and it is not vacant. I will want to warn those who are throwing this papers around to desist from doing that.”
The APC spokesperson said the NWC resolved to flag off the update of members register nationally in Niger State, then flag off in one state in each of the other geo-political zones.
He said the Committee “Adopts in its entirety the report of the NWC’s high level Reconciliation and Intervention Delegation to the United Kingdom’s APC Diaspora Chapter. In particular, the NWC approved the constitution of an Interim Executive Committee of the Chapter of 24 members to be led by its Chairman, Hon. Tunde Doherty and Secretary, Hon. Joseph Adebola. The Interim Executive Committee shall have a term of three months, which term may be renewed as may be necessary.
“Denounced the failure or refusal of the Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly to swear in 16 APC House Members adjudged by the Court of Appeal as the duly elected members of the Plateau State House of Assembly.
“The intransigence of the Speaker and the Governor of the state in this matter is wrong, undemocratic and violently contemptuous of the authority of the Court of Appeal, the highest court for the determination of election petition matters as it concerns the House of Assembly.
“The NWC urges the Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly to swear in the members without further delay in the interest of peace in the good State of Plateau.”
