The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna state may degenerate into crisis ahead of the state’s local government elections following a group’s call for the removal of its acting chairman Air Commodore Emmanuel Jekada (retd).
The group labelled the party chairman as a PDP mole in APC.
The group, Kaduna Coalition of APC Electoral Volunteers, as well as state caucus members of the party, have vowed not to canvass for votes under the leadership of the party’s acting Chairman, for allegedly speaking evil of the ruling party at a recent meeting with APC members.
Speaking via a press statement issued and jointly signed by the Coalition’s Chairman, Mr. Gideon Lidani, and Secretary, Alhaji Abubakar Jubril, the aggrieved members called for the removal of the chairman.
“In the light of the misdemeanors by Air Commodore Jekada, which confirmed his role as a PDP mole in APC, we are of the opinion that the retired Air Force Officer should resign within seven days or should be forced out of office by the stakeholders or other members of the State Caretaker Committee because of his political insensitiveness.
“Some members of the caretaker committee and notable stakeholders of the party in the state are not happy that the acting chairman of the party could throw decorum into the winds by telling a well attended State Executive Committee meeting of the party held on April 16, 2021 that the Kaduna state APC was not an inch better than the Peoples’ Democratic Party that ruled the state for 16 years.
“We consider Air Commodore Jekada speech where he said that the in-fighting among party executives and stakeholders are signals that the Kaduna state APC is not better than the PDP as an insult to the Kaduna state Governor, Nasir el-Rufai who was present at the meeting.
“We are embarrassed by another portion of Air Commodore Jekada speech where he said that some stakeholders who are close to the Governor have been using their vantage position to pocket the party. To us this is offensive and a disservice to the stakeholders and members of the party across the state who have toiled day and night to improve the lot of the party since 2014.”
When contacted, the embattled party chairman, Air Commodore Jekada (retd) said, “I don’t believe in grumbling, let those people accusing me of an offence that I did not commit come out of their hiding and attack me physically, if really they are sincere with their baseless allegations. They are just grumbling, they are bunch of grumblers. I don’t believe in grumbling”.
The party had on Wednesday organised an oral and written aptitude test for its 105 local government chairmanship aspirants to screen out those considered to be incompetent ahead of its May 5 local government election party primaries.
