Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse
Ahead of its May national convention, a crisis looms within the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), as northern leaders of the party, have disassociated themselves from the demand of the former National Secretary of the party, Sani Abdullahi Shinkafi, for the chairmanship position of the party to be zone to the North.
This is contained in a statement by the Deputy National Chairman (North), Abubakar Adamu, after a meeting of the northern leaders of the party, in Dutse, Jigawa State.
The statement called on all party faithful to disregard the demand by Shankafi as the northern leaders were not part of the Kaduna meeting, neither were they contacted before such an important decision could be taken.
The statement which was signed by 25 northern leaders of the party, added that the former national secretary had on April 20, chaired a meeting with some unknown people in Kaduna, demanding the chairmanship of the party to be zoned to the North. It said the demand was selfishly conceived and did not represent the interest of the North.
It added that the northern leaders, reinstated their support for the national convention of the party that was slated for May 2019 to be held in Akwa, the Anambra State capital, arguing that the choice for Akwa, was based on the fact that it is the stronghold of the party.
“We the northern leaders of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), want to inform our members and the public that we were not part of the Kaduna meeting, and we are not in any way in support of the decision reached at the so-called APGA meeting in Asaa Pyramid Hotel, Kaduna on April 20, 2019.
“In view of this, we have categorically disassociated ourselves from the purported meeting, chaired by the former national secretary, Sani, Abdullahi Shinkafi, demanding the office of the national chairman of the party to be zoned to the North. Therefore, all that had been deliberated at the meeting was null and void,” it stated.
“The northern leaders have unanimously passed a vote of confidence on the national leader of the party and chairman of Board of Trustees (BoT), the Anambra state governor, Dr. Willie Obiano, for his good performance in governance.”