The National Legal Adviser of the All Progressives Congress, Abdulkarim Kana, has emphasized that only the party’s National Working Committee holds the authority to suspend the national chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, dismissing the recent suspension by factional executives of Ganduje’s ward.
He stated during an interview with Channels TV that the recent controversial suspension of Ganduje by factional executives of his ward holds no weight, as only the NWC has the power to suspend Ganduje.
The suspension stemmed from allegations of corruption and other offenses during Ganduje’s tenure as governor of Kano, made by two factions within his ward.
However, the APC’s State Working Committee in Kano promptly nullified the suspension and took disciplinary action against the ward executives.
Kana stressed that according to the party’s constitution, proper procedures must be followed before any disciplinary action can be taken against a member.
He reiterated that no organ of the APC, except the NWC, has the authority to suspend a member pending investigation.
He said, “According to the party’s constitution, before such action could be carried out, all procedures must have been followed.
“All those procedures must be exhausted for such penalties to be imposed but as a penalty pending completion of an investigation, no organ of the APC has the power to suspend any member pending investigation except the national working committee.”
While labeling those that suspended Ganduje as “random individuals”, he insisted that they are not members of the ruling party.
He said: “I knew about some random individuals. They are not ward leaders of Ganduje’s ward and they are not ward leaders of anywhere, and that was why from the very beginning, when this information became known to us, the first thing we did was investigate and we have a mechanism within the party to confirm when there are such claims.
“It’s a serious claim. That an organ of the party would take such a daring decision. We conducted our investigations and it didn’t take long for us to establish that the purported individuals who were said to have suspended the national chairman are not even members of the board committee of the party in Ganduje ward and are not members of any of the ward excos as we know.
“My office decided to go beyond just receiving reports from the respective organs as to the authenticity of the claim. We asked the state working committee to come along with the ward excos members to Abuja for us to interview them and we did and to our surprise, I insisted they should come with the identity cards and their voters cards.
“And when they came, we matched their faces against the ID cards and their names and we discovered that those who had appeared on television, making claims that those names belong to them were not and that is how serious this matter is.
“And that was why we did not waste time in bringing in the security operatives and the agencies to carry out investigations as to why those individuals would make such claims.
“They are imposters. That’s exactly what they are. And we also received a specific complaint, which was addressed to the police from the authentic ward excos of the party, and I think the matter is currently before the police for investigations.”
