LEADERSHIP
There are indications that the Presidency may have given the green light for stakeholders to begin the search for a replacement of the All Progressives Congress (APC) national chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, LEADERSHIP gathered.
The Villa, which has been silent over Ganduje’s recent political travail, is said to have “commissioned” APC governors from the North Central geo-political zone to begin a search for a new chairman from the region as originally planned by the party.
A top party source told LEADERSHIP Friday that besides the North Central zone producing the next chairman, the Villa might be open to allowing the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) camp within the party to produce Ganduje’s replacement as part of appeasement moves.
It was further learnt that those opposed to Ganduje’s continued stay, including a serving senator who was former governor of a South South state, listed his perceived handling of the Edo and Ondo primaries as well as the unfolding drama surrounding the probe into his tenure as Kano State governor.
Ganduje’s woes, it was also gathered, is being compounded by an alleged plan for New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) presidential candidate in 2023, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, to return to the APC, a claim confirmed to LEADERSHIP Friday by a former commissioner and APC chieftain in Kano State, Musa Ilyasu Kwankwaso.
Also, the agitation by APC stakeholders in the North Central zone for the return of the chairmanship position to their zone has not helped Ganduje’s case. The immediate past governor of Kano State is from the North West zone.
The APC chairman has been locked in an intriguing legal battle in Kano State over moves to suspend him in his ward by some persons claiming to be APC executives.
They hinged their suspension on the probe into Ganduje’s administration over alleged financial misappropriation by Governor Abba Yusuf.
While Ganduje blames the NNPP-led administration in the state for his travails, the APC leadership, at federal and state levels, has since distanced themselves from the suspension moves.
However, the embattled chairman is fighting back and battling to salvage his job. Party sources told LEADERSHIP Friday that he had reached out to some governors to help him stave off those angling to remove him from office.
It was gathered that he recently pleaded with a governor from a North Central State to urge an aggrieved aspirant to withdraw his suit seeking to stop him from parading himself as chairman.
A serving senator and former national chairmanship aspirant is said to have also been recruited to ensure the case is dropped.
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