Adams Oshiomhole, the All Progressives Congress, APC, national chairman has given reasons Aisha Alhassan, also known as Mama Taraba was not cleared to contest the party’s ticket in its governorship primary on Sunday, September 30, 2018.
Oshiomhole said the party could not tolerate those who played anti-party activities within its ranks, adding that the minister judging from her actions, had not been completely loyal to the party.
He said after reviewing utterances from the minister and following her obvious relationship with one of the PDP presidential aspirants, the APC National Working Committee, NWC, had no option than to disqualify her.
“She had issues that have to do with party loyalty. Our Constitution is clear and it dictates that to contest elections or even hold office in the APC, you must be loyal to the party in every material concern.
“From all she had said in the past and even her comments and general attitude during the screening, the NWC reviewed everything taken together and we arrived at the conclusion that she does not possess the level of loyalty the APC requires for her to contest elections on our platform.”
He added that the minister knew she was being denied from using the APC platform to contest the Taraba governorship election in 2019.
Aisha, who was the minister of women affairs this morning reacted to the snub by resigning from the cabinet and the party.
Aisha had incurred the wrath of the party following her BBC Hausa Service statement that she prefers former vice-president Atiku Abubakar to President Buhari.
Oshiomhole also reacted to the Minister of Communication, Mr Adeboyo Shittu, who was also not cleared to contest the governorship primary, saying the party could not compromise.
The minister was not cleared because he did not participate in the compulsory one year National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, scheme.
“He admitted that he did not do the mandatory NYSC as provided for under the law, and in is own judgment, his being a member of the Oyo House of Assembly and now as a minister of the Federal Republic were enough sacrifices.
“But for us as a party, we know that NYSC is a mandatory scheme. It is not something you may elect to do or abstain from doing.
“So, for us, not participating in the NYSC raises very serious moral issue as well as legal issue.
“If he did not do NYSC, that for us was enough to disqualify him and we had to find the courage to do so,” Oshiomhole said.
