The National Legal Adviser of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Abdulkarim Kana, has stated that only the National Working Committee, NWC can suspend members.
Kana made this disclosure while speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday.
The Legal Adviser was reacting to the recent controversial suspension of APC’s National Chairman, Ganduje, by a faction of excos of his ward in Kano State.
Recall that a faction of APC officials in Ganduje ward had suspended his membership from the party. They accused him of corruption among other offenses, during his tenure as governor of Kano State. But the State Working Committee of the party in Kano, swiftly nullified the suspension. They also took disciplinary actions against the Ward Executives.
The Ward Officials went to a Kano State High Court and got judgement which suspended the National Chairman.
Ganduje went to court and challenged his suspension and got the court vacating the suspension order. The Federal High Court in Kano issued an ex parte order temporarily halting the implementation of the suspension until the case is heard and determined.
But speaking on the television programme on Monday, the Legal Adviser said no organ of the party has the right to suspend any member except the NWC.
Kana stated that, “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,” he said.
Kana, however, described those that suspended Ganduje as “random individuals”. He insisted that they are not members of APC in Kano.
Kana said: “I knew about some random individuals. They are not Ward leaders of Ganduje ward. And they are not ward leaders of anywhere then not what leaders are going to hear. That, we have established. And that was why, from the very beginning, when this information became known to us, the first thing we did was investigate. We’ll 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’s Ward. They 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. That was 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. We discovered that those who had appeared on television, making claims that those names belong to them were not. 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.”
source: Daily Trust