AGGRIEVED APC MEMBERS IN THE FCT STORM PARTY SECRETARIAT 16-06-25
By Sadiq Aminu Aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the FCT have stormed the party National Secretariat to register their grievance over what they described as ill-treatment by new entrants to the party.
The members, under the aegis of the APC Consolidation group, stormed the party Secretariat carrying placards with various inscriptions such as: “We don’t want Aduda, we don’t want PDP members,” “We say no to PDP agents in FCT APC,” “Stop PDP agents from hijacking APC FCT election,” among others.
The spokesman of the group Malam Idris Jibril, appealed to the party National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje to stop the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) agents from hijacking the APC FCT election.
He also condemned what he called the wholesale takeover of APC structures in each of the area councils of the FCT by decampees, who moved into the ruling party from the opposition PDP between January and May this year.
The protesting groups were drawn from the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) and Bwari Area Council, the two council areas won by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2022 FCT election.
The incumbent Executive Chairman of AMAC, Hon. Christopher Zakka Maikalangu, officially decamped from the PDP to the APC last month and he was among those accused of hijacking the ÀPC and preparing for reelection in the FCT Area Council election process without carrying along original members of the ruling party.
The petition by the APC members, which was submitted to the APC National Chairman, Ganduje and copied some members of the party National Working Committee, the Inspector General of Police, the Director General, Department of State Services (DSS) and others, called for the immediate disqualification of Danjuma Samuel Shekwolo, Mr. Christopher Zakka Maikalangu and also halt the PDP-instigated subversion of internal democracy in FCT APC structure.
The petition submitted by the group reads in part: “This petition is borne out of deep concern over the dangerous infiltration of the FCT APC by individuals who neither reflect the values of the party nor meet the constitutional requirements for nomination, yet are being positioned as candidates in a brazen attempt to hijack our internal processes.”
The petitioners drew the attention of the National Chairman and others to the violation of Article 20.1(iii) of the APC Constitution, which stated that “No person shall be eligible to contest for any elective position or be nominated as a candidate unless he/she has been a financial member of the Party for at least three (3) months and has fulfilled all party requirements.”