A faction of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Kwara State has rejected the removal of the state chapter’s chairman Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa by the National Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the party.
The spokesman of the group, Mr. Akogun Oyedepo said this in a press briefing from a text signed by 19 stakeholders of APC in Kwara State at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja.
Mr. Oyedepo said the removal of Mr. Bolarinwa and the appointment of his deputy Mr. Samari Abdullahi was unconstitutional.
He added that Mr. Bolarinwa was removed because of the Kwara state Governor Abdulrahaman Abdulrazak.
“The Secretary of the National Caretaker Committee told us that the Chairman is said to have been removed on the complaint of the Governor of Kwara State, His Excellency, Abdulrahaman Abdulrazak as he claimed that he could not work with the former. The complaint was sustained and made a subject of removal as a result of connivance between the Governor of Kwara State and his Niger State counterpart and friend, His Excellency, Sanni Bello. The content of the complaints was not made available, neither to the Critical Stakeholders of the Party in Kwara State nor to the Chairman, Hon Bolarinwa. The decision of the Caretaker Committee was said to be based on the recommendations of the North Central Zone of the Party, under the Chairmanship of HE Sanni Bello. Governor Sanni Bello was said to have recommended that the authentic Chairman of the Party should be removed and be made a Commissioner in the cabinet of Kwara State. He also recommended that Abdullai Sanmari, the crony of the Governor of Kwara State and the leader of Abdulrahman Splinter AA group within Kwara APC, be made the Caretaker Chairman” he said.
The group noted that the National Caretaker Committee is responsible for upholding the party’s constitution rather than subverting it.
“We found it difficult to believe that the leadership of a National Political Party like the APC will flagrantly abuse its constitution by the purported removal of our State Chairman. It is not written anywhere in the Constitution of APC that a zone of the Party like the North Central Zone, can recommend to the National Secretariat for the removal of any officer of the Party in any ward, Local Government and the State? Does the North Central zone know what goes on in Kwara State? Has the North Central Zone conducted a diligent inquiry on events in the APC of Kwara State to have been in the position to make any form of recommendation about the party in the State? If the Governors decide in solidarity with one another to abuse the constitution, it is our belief that the body that has the duty to uphold the sanctity of our Constitution should be the National Executive of the Party”
The group called on President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in order to save the APC from destruction.
Meanwhile, a member of the opposition group, Mr. Kunle Suleiman in a telephone interview said they support the decision of the National Caretaker Committee.
“That’s far from the truth. We are already in Abuja about 11 of us trying to reach the National Chairman. We heard they are there we don’t want a clash. You will see the real leaders of the party and the stakeholders when we meet the National Chairman.
“We stand fully by the decision of the National Working Committee on the appointment of the Abdullahi Samari as the Chairman of Caretaker Committee,” Suleiman said.
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