Only NWC can suspend Ganduje – APC legal advisor

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

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

The factions had accused Ganduje of corruption during his time as governor of Kano and suspended him. The APC State Working Committee in Kano lifted the suspension and imposed disciplinary action on the community leaders.

The Federal High Court in Kano issued an interim order to stop the implementation of the suspension until a final decision is made. Similarly, a Kano State High Court judge quashed an earlier order suspending Ganduje.

Kana stressed that according to the party’s constitution and due process, the NWC is the only body that has the right to suspend members.

“All such procedures must be exhausted for such penalties to be imposed but as a penalty pending the completion of an investigation, no body of the APC has the power to suspend a member pending investigation except the National Working Committee,” he said.

The legal advisor dismissed the people who suspended Ganduje as non-members of the party.

He said: “…I knew about some random people. They are not community leaders of Ganduje community and they are not community leaders from anywhere other than what the leaders will hear. We discovered that. And that’s why, from the very beginning, when we became aware of this information, the first thing we did was investigate and we set up a mechanism within the party to confirm whether there were such allegations.

“It is a serious allegation. That a party body would make such a daring decision. We conducted our investigations and it didn’t take us long to discover that the people alleged to have suspended the state chairman are not even members of the party’s Executive Committee in Ganduje District and none of these members are Ward Excos as we know. “