Barely 24 hours to the Presidential and National Assembly elections, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Niger state has suspended a chieftains of the party, Alhaji Sani Bello Mustapha AKA Sani Basket from the party, accusing him of anti-party activities.
The suspended Chieftain is an uncle to the state Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello.
The embattled party Chieftain is being accused of working and openly campaigning for the Presidential Candidate of the main opposition party, the People Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and other candidates of the PDP in the state in the Saturday elections.
In a letter of suspension by the APC Central Ward Kontagora and signed by the Ward Chairman and Secretary, Alhaji Hamza Magidad and Alhaji Abdullahi Kira, respectively, accused Sani Bello Mustafa of anti party activities.
Parts of the four paragraph letter, a copy which was made available to Journalists’ in Minna on Friday reads: “our collective resolution to suspended aforesaid member from the party is due to anti party activities i.e. campaigning against the party which is capable of tarnishing the good image of the party.
“Your utterances in the Landmark FM station dated 21st February 2023 is a clear testimony that person in question has not been adhering to party constitution “.
However, reacting to this development, Alhaji Sani Bello Mustafa said he got the news of the suspension in the social media and refuted allegations of anti party activities.
According to him, “freedom of speech is an integral part of democracy and a fundamental right of citizens. If the ward chairman and secretary of the party said they have suspended me for no reason other than this, I want to notify you that I have resigned from the APC. I am no longer a member of the party”.
It was however gathered that this development has further deepened the crisis rocking the party in the Niger North Senatorial District also known as Zone C where Governor Abubakar Sani Bello is the Senatorial candidate of APC in the National Assembly elections.