The Kogi State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has disassociated itself from a report credited to the state wing of the party which attacked the erstwhile national leader of the ruling party, Bola Tinubu, on the ministerial choice for the state.
The leadership of the party had reportedly vowed to clip the wings of Tinubu and James Faleke, who was the running mate to the party’s governorship candidate, the late Abubakar Audu, in the November 21 governorship election in the state.
Suleman Ejibunu and Richard Asaje, who signed the report, said the party would frustrate Tinubu’s support for Faleke as a replacement for the former Minister of labour productivity, James Ocholi, who died in a road crash last year.
But the APC, in a statement signed by all the members of its state executive council led by its chairman, Haddy A. Ametuo, on Wednesday, January 4, 2016 said the state chapter of the APC had no reason to disparage Tinubu.
The party said President Muhammadu Buhari would be supported to pick anybody, including Faleke, as a minister. The APC said those who spoke against Tinubu lacked the power to speak for the party in the state.
The statement partly read, “From our records at all levels in the state, these self-styled leaders – Alhaji Suleman Ejibunu and Chief Richard Asaje – are ‘ghost’ members of our great party. They, therefore, have no ‘locus standi’ to speak for the party at any level.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has the constitutional power to choose whosoever he deems fit as his cabinet member, without consulting anyone or group. So, if he decides to choose Faleke as his ministerial nominee, we strongly support his choice. Faleke has been a strong financier and pillar of our party in the state since inception.
“We respect the power of the President to freely choose whoever he wants to serve in his cabinet. We also respect the national leadership of Tinubu whose support and influence traverses the national structures of the party. We, the members of Kogi State executive of the APC, strongly condemn the purported publication by these ‘ghost members of APC.’”
