A group of All Progressives Congress (APC) supporters from the North Central region have stormed the party’s national secretariat in Abuja and demanded that National Chairman Abdullahi Ganduje step down.
Speaking to reporters in Abuja on Thursday, the demonstrators stated that their demand was in response to Ganduje’s recent suspension by a group of his ward executives and the Kano State government’s purported bribery charge against him.
The demonstrators urged President Bola Tinubu and Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, George Akume, to take into consideration giving the North Central region the opportunity to lead the party again while they chanted solidarity songs and carried several banners that said things like “Ganduje must resign” and “Return the APC chairmanship to North Central.”
The Forum of APC State Chairmen only voted in favor of Ganduje on Tuesday, reaffirming their unwavering backing for him.
But the demonstrators, operating under the banner of Concerned North Central APC Stakeholders, denounced Ganduje’s prolonged tenure, pointing out that it was an obvious transgression of the party’s zoning doctrine.
Mohammed Mahmud Saba, the leader of the protesters, revealed that his people in the North Central had voted a vote of no confidence in the national chairman and have also demanded his immediate resignation, in contrast to the 37 APC state chairmen.
Saba restated that, despite handing Tinubu the third-highest number of votes after North West and South West in the 2023 presidential election, the people of North Central felt deceived when the APC national chairmanship was taken from them after Senator Abdullahi Adamu’s resignation.
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 great Party in 2022.”
