The national vice-chairman of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Umar Duhu has nullified the inauguration of the state interim committee in Borno State, describing the process as an attempt to usurp his powers.
The national interim secretary of the party, Tijjani Tumsa, had on Saturday inaugurated the state interim committee of the party in Borno State, a task Duhu said was exclusively his and was carried out without his knowledge or consent.
He therefore declared the exercise was null and void.
“In my capacity as the Vice Chairman, I am the only one empowered by the APC to inaugurate all APC State Interim Committee, SIC, members. I had inaugurated, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba, and Adamawa States. I only have Borno and Yobe states to conclude my assignment in the Zone. I am not sick, nor outside the shores of this country, that anyone, no matter how big his position is in the APC, will usurp my powers and do so for selfish reasons,” he said.
Duhu said he was at the last lap of discussions with the leaders of the party in the dtate, to inaugurate them when he got a call from the former state chairman of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Ibrahim El-Zubairu, accusing him of sidelining them in the inauguration ceremony which held on Saturday.
“What I am doing is to carry everyone along. I will be failing in my responsibilities if I go ahead to inaugurate, and (fail to) carry all members of the SIMC along,” he said.
The vice-chairman urged members to be concerned with uniting and strengthening the party, rather than sowing seeds of discord through the pursuit of personal gains.
He added: “I never dabbled into the affairs and works of any national officer of the APC. Respect is reciprocal and I do not also expect anyone of them to do any such thing to me.
‘We all have our defined responsibilities, and we must remain sincere to our responsibilities, and the respect for one another should be our guide.”
Times could not be reached to react to the nullification of the interim committee’s inauguration.