Felix Morka, the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, expressed that it would be incorrect to compare the current challenges of their National Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, to the political maneuverings that resulted in the removal of the Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee from the party headquarters.
Felix Morka, the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, made this statement while addressing queries regarding Ganduje’s suspension on Arise TV on Thursday.
Oshiomhole, the 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.
However, the party's leadership was dissolved two years into their tenure, which a former acting chairman of the APC, Ntufam Eta, alleged was done to thwart the presidential aspirations of Bola Tinubu (now president).
In March 2020, a Federal High Court in the Federal Capital Territory instructed Oshiomhole to step aside following an application of interlocutory injunction seeking his removal as APC national chairman.
Justice Danlami Senchi had declared that the former Edo governor should remain suspended until the case was decided.
Senchi also remarked that it was inappropriate for the ruling party to have retained Oshiomhole as chairman after he was suspended by his state APC chapter in November 2019.
Responding to concerns that Ganduje may face a similar fate, Morka maintained that the situations were different.
The APC publicity secretary explained that unlike in Oshiomhole’s case, those advocating for Ganduje’s suspension were not recognized members of the party.
He said, “No, it is not analogous 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 authorize 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.
“The difference here is that we have pure imposters announcing the suspension of our national chairman and they had gone to court to attempt to affirm that same illegal and criminal act. So I just want to make sure that that is clear that these individuals are not authorized and not acting foreign on behalf of the ward. They need to stop because when the dust settles; there will be consequences for this sort of behavior.”
