NORTH-CENTRAL APC ANGRY WITH ZULUM FOR ALLEGEDLY MOBILIZING THUGS AGAINST GANDUJE

NORTH-CENTRAL APC ANGRY WITH ZULUM FOR ALLEGEDLY MOBILIZING THUGS AGAINST GANDUJE

The North-Central All Progressives Congress, APC, Forum has asked Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, to immediately apologize for allegedly mobilizing thugs against the party’s National Chairman, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje, during the North-East stakeholders meeting in Gombe on Sunday.

Zulum reportedly led a protest, which disrupted the meeting, after Ganduje and APC National Vice Chairman (North-East), Comrade Mustapha Salihu, endorsed Tinubu for a second term without acknowledging Shettima.

Ganduje and Salihu had to be escorted out of the venue under heavy security as protests broke out at the meeting venue.

Reacting to the development in a statement issued by its Chairman, Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, on Monday, the North-Central APC Forum faulted Zulum’s conduct, accusing him of mobilizing thugs against the the APC national chairman.

The Forum also defended Ganduje’s action, noting that it is only the President that can nominate the Vice President, who is his running mate in the presidential election.

The statement said, “It is the prerogative of the President to nominate his Vice President. Nobody is going to force President Bola Tinubu to choose who should be his Vice President; it is left for him to nominate whoever he feels he can work with.

“We are condemning the action of Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State, for mobilizing thugs to attack the National Chairman, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje. Ganduje is innocent, he was discharging his constitutionally required duties as party national chairman.

“It is not the national chairman’s responsibility to nominate a Vice President. It is also not his responsibility to endorse anyone for Vice President. As a party official, he is meant to be neutral and he displayed his neutrality at the North-East stakeholders meeting.

“We, the North-Central APC Forum, are asking the Governor of Borno State to apologize for mobilizing thugs against the National Chairman. Governor Babagana Zulum should apologize to Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje, immediately.

“As stakeholders who are committed to the progress and development of the party, we are not happy with the conduct of the governor of Borno State.”

Further condemning Zulum’s action, the Forum noted that the Borno governor, and the North-East, have no reason to feel entitled to any privileges in the APC because the region did not deliver the expected results for Tinubu and the party in the 2023 election.

According to the statement, the North-Central, which gave the APC and President Tinubu more votes in the last election, should be the one demanding special privileges, rather than the North-East.

“It is on record that the opposition won in the North-East in 2023 even though the Vice President is from the zone. The North-Central gave the APC and Tinubu the third highest number of votes – behind the North-West and the South-West.

“So if any zone should feel entitled to special considerations, definitely it is not the North-East, which makes Governor Babagana Zulum’s action even more unfortunate,” the statement added.

A breakdown of the results from the 2023 presidential election shows that the South-West gave Tinubu the highest number of votes. The President got 2,542, 979 votes in the South-West, which is 58.4 percent of votes cast in the region.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar got 951,941 votes (22.6%) in the zone, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) got 849,423 votes (19.5%).

In the North-West, Tinubu got 2,652,235 votes (41.0%), Atiku garnered 2,197,824 votes (33.9%) and Kwankwaso got 1,268,250 votes (19.6%).

In the North-Central, Tinubu received 1,760,993 votes, (41.3%), Obi got 1,415,557 votes (33.2%) while Atiku got 1,025,178 votes (24.1%).

However, in the North-East, Atiku got the highest number of votes 1,741,846 (55.9%), while Tinubu came a distant second with 933,176 votes (29.9%).

In Borno State – Zulum and Shettima’s state – APC got 252,282 votes while PDP finished a close second with 190,921.

The North-Central APC Forum, further commenting on the supposed non- endorsement of the Vice President by Ganduje, observed that Shettima’s emergence as Tinubu’s running mate in 2023 was based on political calculations which may no longer be viable for the next election.

The Forum specifically noted that the Muslim-Muslim APC ticket was adopted as a strategy to win the 2023 election.