The Senator representing Kaduna North senatorial district under the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi, has faulted the submission of names of delegates to fill the vacant positions of the party during the party congress in the state.
He said the submission of names by Governor Nasir el-Rufai without due consultation or election was blatantly unconstitutional and a recipe for crisis.
Such action, according to him, does not in any way conform to the provisions of the party’s constitution and guideline procedures stipulated for the conduct of such exercise.
Senator Hunkuyi who stated this in an exclusive interview with Journalists Sunday yesterday further explained that the crisis rocking the APC in Kaduna State was due to neglect of the wishes of the party members who made sacrifice to ensure that the present administration was installed.
The lawmaker said it will amount to disregard and breach of constitutional guidelines for any individual to personally draw a list of delegates to fill elective offices and submit same to the National Working Committee without considering the wish of the party men and women who formed the party.
He said, “The crisis in Kaduna APC dates back to its inception and there has been this running battle between two sides of the same APC that has, to a greater extent, hampered the progress of the party over time.
“But the latest issue in question which is at stake is that of the local government adhoc delegates’ election which is supposed to represent all the local governments of every state at the forth coming non-elective convention of the APC before the end of this year.
“The National Working Committee of the APC and the relevant provision of the constitution of the APC have clearly indicated that within a convention, the delegates of that convention will be composed of two kinds of delegates- statutory delegate, which has to do with the elected members of the APC holding offices, either in government or legislative bodies.
“The second category is a delegate who is supposed to be elected as ad-hoc delegates to serve only in ad-hoc capacity in either election in a convention or in the process of businesses of amendment of relevant sections of the constitution of the APC.”
Hunkuyi further noted that, while any election committee to represent the APC in any given state should come after the approval of the NWC of the party, the opposite was the case in kaduna.
He said, “What we have seen, what we have learnt and what we have already witnessed in the last election and indeed this upcoming election to fill in this gap of leadership in Kaduna state should not come. Nobody should contemplate and nobody should joke with the powers of the NWC.
“If anything should come this week from the office of the national secretary appointing members of election committee to fill these positions in Kaduna state, know that it will be recipe for crisis.”
LEADERSHIP.