From Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi
The Chairman of the Kebbi State Caretaker Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Arch Bala Sani Kangiwa, has described the suspension of the Financial Secretary of the committee by executive members as illegal.
Kangiwa stated this while briefing reporters in Birnin Kebbi in his reaction to the suspension that occurred while he in Taraba State on a national assignment.
He explained that he did not order any state executive meeting or ask his deputy chairman to act on his behalf while he was out of state.
‘The meeting was not convened properly. So, if the meeting is illegal, any action taken therein is equally illegal. Our party has a constitution and it is clearly stated in the constitution how a meeting should be convened. And that has been contravened. It was not followed,’ the caretaker committee chairman told reporters.
‘It is only the chairman that has the right to call for a meeting. Now, in the absence of the chairman, if I had handed over to the deputy chairman, that my absence will be for a long time, I would have directed my deputy chairman to take over and he could have convened a meeting.
‘And even if I am around and I refused to convene a meeting and the executive felt the meeting must be convened, they can get two-third of the majority of the executive to sign and force me to convene the meeting.
‘None of these was done. Therefore, the meeting in the first place was illegal. Anything that was discussed in such an illegal meeting is also illegal,’ he concluded.
Kangiwa also disclosed that since his return to the state, none of the concerned executives briefed him about what had transpired in his absence, stressing that he was planning to call for the state executive meeting to find out about their grievances.
‘I am appealing to my colleagues and those outside the party pushing them to please return their swords into their sheaths, and let us try and allow peace to reign in the party,’ Kangiwa urged the aggrieved parties.
‘Our governor, who is our leader in the state, and other national leaders of the party have been going around the states to reconcile members and gather more new members into the party. Now, here, some people are bringing problems. And by the time they are bringing problems to the state executive, they are also creating problems for the party in the state.
‘And that is not good for Kebbi State which is known to be almost 100 per cent for APC. That is not good for our governor who, as I said, is busy reconciling members of our party with other national leaders in the country.’
The chairman appealed to any aggrieved members of the party to wait for the state and national conventions to vote out any executive of the caretaker committee they feel do not deserve to be reelected, rather than foment problems for the party.