No fewer than 22 local government chairmen of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Niger state have sacked the state chairman, Engineer Jubril Imam and two other officers.
WITHIN NIGERIA learnt that the meeting which led to the sacking of the chairman and two officers of the party was held in Haske hotel.
Over 85 percent of the members of the State Executive Committee of APC including 22 out of 25 APC local government chairmen, 25 secretaries and 27 out of the 33 members of the executive committee attended the meeting.
The two officers of the party including the Secretary of the party, Barrister Mohammed Liman and the Treasurer, Dr Shafi Abdulsalami.
The meeting was presided by the State Deputy Chairman, Alhaji Ali Kapenter where decision to replace the Niger state Chairman with Alhaji Aliyu Saidu Galkogo was taken. Assistant State Youth leader, Sulaiman Abdullahi replaced Alhaji Mohammed Liman as Secretary while the Treasurer, Dr Shafi Abdusalami was replaced by Saidu Madaki from the Wushishi local government area of the party.
Reacting to the development, the Chairman, Engineer Jibrin Imam in a swift reaction described those that took the action as “jokers” saying that “they have no legal right to take such action”.
Recall that the Niger state APC has been bedeviled with crisis for more than a month with some members accusing the Chairman, the secretary and Treasurer of financial misappropriation, abuse of office and inability to account for over N872 million generated in the past between 2014 to 2019.
The crisis got to the extent that the Chairman was detained by the Police over the accusation but was released on bail.
“The meeting was illegal, they do not have any constitutional right to summon such a meeting, I am the person allowed by law to call any meeting.
“Nobody presented any allegation before me nor was I invited to face any panel. The meeting is a kangaroo meeting because they did not exhaust all avenues provided by the party constitution, aside from this, the case they are talking about is still in court, they have only taken the laws into their hands
“I am still the Chairman, the Secretary is still the Secretary and the Treasurer is still the treasurer, nobody has removed us. We are still in the office.”, he said.