- Directs Plateau Speaker to swear in members
BY VICTOR BUORO – With posters of the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello currently decorating parts of Abuja, the nation’s capital, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has declared that there is no vacancy in its National Chairman’s office currently occupied by Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
According to the APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka; “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.”
Further elaborating on the issue in response to enquiries, Morka said; “Yes, we have also seen some of those posters. This is democracy. People do what they want. But, make no mistake because the office of the National Chairman is properly and fully occupied.
“And 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.”
The APC Spokesman, who has a word of caution for Party members and their cronies, also said; “I will want to warn those who are throwing these papers around to desist from doing that.
“That is not our priority right now. We need to concentrate on the job that needs to be done to solve some of the problems that will make our country a better place for all of us.”
In another development, the Party has frowned at the Plateau State House of Assembly (PLSHA) Speaker, Hon Gabriel Daweng’s decision not to swear in 16 APC candidates confirmed as duly elected lawmakers by the Court of Appeal
Reacting to the development, the ruling APC stated thus; “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.”
A statement by the Party’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, said; “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.”
Morka’s statement is against the backdrop of the Speaker’s refusal to swear in the APC members last week, citing an existing court order restraining him from carrying out the exercise.
Forefront News notes that last week, the Police in Plateau were on ground at the State Assembly to avert a possible breakdown of law and order after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers who were sacked by the Court of Appeal and their APC counterparts declared winners by the same appellate Court stormed the House insisting on occupying their respective seats.
However, moving to calm frayed nerves, Speaker Gabriel Daweng, who called for restraint while urging the aggrieved House members to respect the order of the court on the matter, told journalists in Jos that; “For now, 32 members are claiming 16 seats of the house. I am not the interpreter of the law because we are lawmakers.
“I am in the receipt of the court process. So, as an Assembly, there is nothing we can say. As law-abiding citizens, we are awaiting the institution saddled with the responsibility of interpreting the law to do that. In due course, we will inform the public about what the court said. But for now, we have eight members of the House of Assembly.”
Meanwhile, the APC’s statement also announced that the membership register update will flag off in Niger State, adding that the exercise would thereafter take place per state in each of the other five geo-political zones.
Also, the statement disclosed that the Party adopted the report submitted by NWC’s high-level Reconciliation and Intervention Delegation to the United Kingdom’s APC Diaspora Chapter.
The statement said; “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”, adding that; “The Interim Executive Committee shall have a term of three months, which term may be renewed as may be necessary”.
According to Morka’s statement, these formed part of the resolutions at the Party’s National Working Committee (NWC) 141st meeting held in Abuja on Monday, January 29, 2024.
