The National Leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said it is yet to receive and study the recent High Court judgement recognising Senator Ibrahim Shekarau’s faction as legitimate.
Shekarau, a former governor of Kano State is at daggers-drawn with the incumbent governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, over the control of party structure in the state.
A Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Abuja had last week voided the ward and state congresses conducted by Ganduje-led faction which produced Abdullahi Abbas as Chairman.
But speaking with newsmen on Monday in Abuja, Secretary of the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Sen John James Akpanudoedehe, said the party did not send parallel state congress committees to the state.
“We are responsible leaders of the party and we won’t like to comment on a judgement that we haven’t seen. All I can tell you now is that, we are going to apply for a Certified True Copy of the judgement. We haven’t seen it. We need to study the judgement.
“We didn’t give letters to two committees! How could we have done that? We won’t put fire in our own house. We know the people we gave official letter to go to Kano and conduct official assignment. That is the team we will accord recognition,” he said.
In a separate interview, Barrister Auwwal Ibrahim, who led the team that conducted the congress which produced the displaced Abdullahi Abass as Chairman, told newsmen that the congress attended by Ganduje was the authentic congresses.
“It was very fair and very cordial because we were drafted from the national headquarters of the party with my name and the names of our members. We collected our mandate from the APC headquarters through the office of the Director of Organisation, Professor Al Mustapha Mednaer.
“We went for the congress with all the materials and we conducted the congress in Kano without any hitches. We met with all the stakeholders, from the governor to the local organising committee. We did what we did and we came back with the result to the national secretariat.
“I was aware of it on the day of the congress. While the congress was going on, the chairman of the local organising committee who happened to be a one time deputy governor of Kano state called me and informed me that there was a parallel congress going on around one village near the prison yard.
“I told them that as far I was concerned, I was sent from the national headquarters with the mandate to come and conduct the congress. So I told him that I was the genuine chairman of the congress and we have the consent and agreement of the national headquarters to come and conduct the exercise.
“I told him that I am not aware of any parallel congress that was going on and I told him that they won’t be recognised by the party,” he said.
