Only NWC can suspend Ganduje – APC legal adviser

Abdulkarim Kana, the All Progressives Congress (APC) national legal adviser, stated that the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) holds exclusive authority to suspend Abdullahi Ganduje, the national chairman.

Kana addressed the issue on Channels Television on Monday, responding to Ganduje’s recent suspension by factions within his ward.

The factions had accused Ganduje of corruption during his time as governor of Kano and suspended him. The APC State Working Committee in Kano invalidated the suspension and disciplined the ward executives.

The Federal High Court in Kano issued a temporary order to stop the suspension’s implementation until a final decision is made. Similarly, a Kano State High Court judge reversed an earlier order that suspended Ganduje.

Kana emphasised that the NWC is the only body with the right to suspend members, following the party’s constitution and due process.

“All those procedures must be exhausted for such penalties to be imposed but as a penalty pending completion of an investigation, no organ of the APC has the power to suspend any member pending investigation except the national working committee,” he said.

The legal adviser dismissed the individuals who suspended Ganduje as non-members of the party.

He said: “…I knew about some random individuals. They are not ward leaders of Ganduje ward and they are not ward leaders of anywhere then not what leaders are going to hear. That, we have established. And that was why, from the very beginning, when this information became known to us, the first thing we did was investigate and we’ll have a mechanism within the party to confirm when there are such claims.

“It’s a serious claim. That an organ of the party would take such a daring decision. We conducted our investigations and it didn’t take long for us to establish that the purported individuals who were said to have suspended the national chairman are not even members of the board committee of the party in Ganduje ward and are not members of any of the ward excos as we know.”