From Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja
The Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogbonicha ward of Local Government Area of Kogi State, Hon Peter Onoja, has disowned the factional leader of the national caretaker committee of the APC, Prince Mustapha Mona Audu, saying he has ceased to be the member of the ruling party owing to his failure to revalidate his membership.
Addressing newsmen on Tuesday night at the state secretariat of the party, the ward chairman said Mona, the son of the former governor of Kogi State, Prince Abubaker Audu, abandoned the party since he was disqualified from the APC governorship primary in 2019
The statement reads:
“It has come to the notice of the Ogbonicha Ward, Ofu LGA Chapter of the All Progressives Congress that a certain Prince Mustapha Mona Audu and some unscrupulous individuals organized a Press Conference in Abuja on Monday 29th November 2021 whereat the amorphous group claimed to have formed a parallel Caretaker Committee of our Great Party (APC) under an unknown platform called Progressive Youth Movement (PYM).
“In view of this ugly development, the Obonicha Ward, Ofu LGA Chapter of the All Progressives Congress wishes to state emphatically as follows:
“Prince Mustapha Mona Audu has long ceased to be a member of our Great Party, the All Progressives Congress in Obonicha Ward, Ofu LGA.
“The said Prince Mustapha Mona Audu who was disqualified by the Primaries Screening Committee for the 2019 Kogi State Gubernatorial Election for failing to meet the basic constitutional requirements has since boycotted the Party.
“Most importantly he refused, neglected and failed to revalidate his membership of the Party at his polling unit as required of all law-abiding members during the APC Nationwide Registration and Revalidation exercise in 2021, thus allowing his membership to elapse and his name to be struck from the register of the APC at his Obonicha Ward, Ofu LGA of Kogi State.
“In the light of the foregoing, Prince Mustapha Mona Audu does not belong to the APC and his activities in the so-called “Progressive Youth Movement” are unknown and unaccepted to the Obonicha Ward, Ofu LGA chapter of the APC.
“Moreover we deplore in the strongest possible terms the unwarranted and totally unlawful attack on the CECPC as the national managers of our party, a position that has been severally confirmed and strengthened by every hierarchy of court in Nigeria, including the Supreme Court.
“We further confirm our support for and firm stand as a branch with the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC),” the statement added.